Normal
by Appaku
Summary: COMPLETE! SPOILERS. Set in the OVA period, Tenkou fools Tetsuya into collecting Taka's memories for him. Keisuke is sent to get Tetsuya out while keeping it a secret from Miaka. Celestial warriors, Nyan-Nyan and cell phones are included!
1. A day in the life

**Author Fangirling: **Hey, Readers! Did you all like Split Loyalties? Good! Then you'll like this one. It is not a sequel to SL, but it does take up the characters and situations I did not touch on in SL. Also, you do not need to have read SL to read this one, as they are unrelated in plot. They just take a similar approach, although this one brings back my switching 1st-person stream-of-consciousness style.

There are just a few assumptions:

1. I assume you've seen the OVAs. Therefore, many of the specific character scenes are kept the same and simply summarized, so as to save reading time for you and to preserve your favorite scenes from the OVA (or at least _my _favorite scenes). Also, it's good for you to have a little background on Tenkou and his little underlings, which I did some explanation of but otherwise will trust you to know what I'm talking about.

2. We assume this takes place a few months after the original ends. Taka is living in Tokyo and is Miaka's boyfriend but has no memory of being Tamahome (hence, the memory jewels), although the others have informed him of it. In Konan, however, we assume that less time has passed (five months or so).

3. The first two chapters and the final chapter are in 3rd person POV, the middle chapters will switch between Keisuke and Tetsuya's POVs. I will note which one starts each chapter for clarity's sake. There will be 18 installments in this fic, and I should be updating on a weekly basis. Should I miss an update, you're welcome to pester.

Happy reading!

* * *

Class. Club. Homework. Date. Drink. Sleep. Wake up. Repeat.

College life was simple, but satisfying for Keisuke and Tetsuya. It was during the part of the cycle called "club" that they found themselves in that conversation one day. It started with an accusation: "You're too obsessed."

"Obsessed?" Tetsuya looked over the rim of his sunglasses.

"With the book," clarified Keisuke. "It's over. I don't see why you keep reading into it."

"That is what this club is about," he smiled defensively. "The three of us look up ancient legends and study them. Why shouldn't we try to understand more about the Universe of the Four Gods?"

"Three," Keisuke rolled his eyes at the mention of their rare third member. "Yeah, but what more can you get out of it? You already got a girlfriend from it. Come to think of it, Miaka got someone, too. And what did I get, huh? Is there a girl in there for me that you're looking for?"

"Don't act like Yui and I are just dating because of the book. And I'm reading because it's interesting to me," he replied. "You know why I stuck around back when you found this in the library instead of leaving you and thinking it was crazy? 'Cause I've always had an interest in this."

"No, I'm sure you're just a Universe of the Four Gods fanboy," he gestured to the other books about legends which had barely been opened. "I'll bet you have fantasies about going there yourself."

"My name is written in there anyway. So's yours! Anyway, if the story ever does continue, I just want to be prepared," he looked down to it fondly, "So I can protect Yui."

Keisuke thought it was sweet how unrealistic he was. "You know, you keep such good records of what happened and other stuff about the book, so have you ever thought of being an archaeologist instead? Seriously, being an accounting major has gotta bore the heck out of you."

"Yeah, well," he frowned, "I don't think Yui would like that much. I'm also in the club just to satisfy my own interest for a while."

"Then wouldn't you be protecting her more by leaving it alone?"

"Like I said, it's my own interest right now. We bonded with those characters as much as Yui and Miaka did, even if we didn't have quite the same adventures. It's kind of my own healing process, I guess."

"Compared to them, we really don't need one. It's still amazing, though," the friend relaxed in the chair to stare out the window at nothing in particular. "My sister and your girlfriend have gone to an entirely different world- completely disappeared! They gained their own powers and survived all kinds of things, and then summoned gods! Even those characters came here. How can we even compare? All we did was read and play detectives. We're so normal compared to those two that it makes us look silly for hanging onto the book like this!"

He had chuckled warmly at their foolishness, but Tetsuya didn't share the laugh. "They probably do need more healing, huh?"

Keisuke quieted, and then eyed him. "Say... you're not just dating Yui because you pity her, are you?"

"No!" he was quick to correct him. "Yui's a smart, sensitive girl with a great whit. Plus, she's beautiful. If only she hadn't have gone through all of that. If only Nakago hadn't used her like that," he clenched his fists to his mouth thoughtfully, and lowered his eyebrows behind the sunglasses where Keisuke could only imagine the look he might have had. "She didn't know who to trust. I'm sure that if she had just had some kind of warning about Nakago, she would have been able to see what to do and what not to do."

"Sometimes even smart kids get used, Tetsuya. No one can blame her."

"No, but I can blame her circumstances and I can blame Nakago. How dare he."

"Well," Keisuke smiled awkwardly, "who could dare him not to? He was pretty powerful and he knew it. We saw how powerful he was. Still, you have Yui now and can take care of her. I'll bet Suboshi would be jealous!"

Once again, Keisuke's laugh was not returned. Instead Tetsuya said, "I'd have kind of liked to meet Suboshi. I could relate."

"Tetsuya, the guy was crazy. He murdered little children, remember?"

"Not like that. I can just understand how much he must have been taken with Yui," Tetsuya finally smiled. "I'll bet he was grateful to be a warrior to be able to protect her. But I can also understand how hard it must have been for him to deal with her while she was healing. She doesn't even like to talk to me about the book much. More than anything else, she seems embarrassed."

"You don't think... well, don't take this the wrong way, you're a great guy, Tetsuya, but... do you wonder if she's dating you just because you're normal?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't mean it like--"

"No, tell me what you meant, and then I'll answer."

He took a deep breath. "Just that you're not going to drag her into any more dangerous stuff like that. Like you're helping her readjust to a normal life."

"Because I'm normal?" he smiled weakly. "Maybe. She might only have accepted a date with me because I already understood those things about her. Still, you can't say we're completely normal. We still have ties to that book, not because we have celestial destinies or anything, but because we read it. So what if we'll never be anything like Miaka and Yui, and even Taka?"

"Well said," nodded Keisuke. "It's funny how books have a way of making you feel like you did things you never did or had friendships with people you never even knew. The Universe of the Four Gods is special because it feels like so much more than that. Heck, we did see some of these characters! I did see Suboshi, you know."

"Aw, why didn't you introduce me?"

"He was a little busy trying to kill my sister."

They laughed, but it quickly subsided. "I do miss them. I wish the story would go on so we could see how Chichiri and Tasuki are doing."

"Well, that's what happens when you reach the end of really good book. It just ends, and that's it. How about I go get us some beer?"

"Sure."

As Keisuke left the room, Tetsuya shot a disapproving glance in his direction._ It doesn't just end if it goes on affecting you. Even Yui is still affected by someone who is dead. Still hurt, but still wearing his earring._

_If I could just give Nakago a piece of my mind, that'd be satisfying._

_Keisuke's probably right. Yui shouldn't have to hear anymore about this book. I can still do what I want with it, but as long as it just doesn't do anything else to her.  
_  
_This book... _he opened the pages fondly, recognizing the words he had already read and reread before. Even for a normal person such as himself, it was the greatest adventure he had ever had. Even he still had some issues to work through associated with it.

_"Like Nakago?"_

He jumped, but didn't even look to see if Keisuke had made it back. That was not a voice he recognized.

_"When you meet Nakago, what will you do?" _

"I'll make him regret everything he ever did to Yui!"

_"Interesting. What would you think if I told you that he used to worship me?"_

"Who... who is this?"

"I am Tenkou. I have read your heart, Tetsuya, and know your attachment to this place. I have work for you here in the Universe of the Four Gods."


	2. What a fanboy can do

**Author Fangirling: **This chapter continues the set up, 3rd person POV. The next chapter is when I find it starts to get more fun when I used 1st POV again. Once again referencing the OVA, the pacing in this chapter reminds me of the end of the first episode in OVA 2. Lightning speed explanations, anyone?

* * *

"Tenkou? I haven't heard of you," he tightened his grip on the book talking to him. "What do you mean, 'worshiped'?"

"_Just as there are other territories in this world, there are also other deities besides the cardinal four. I am one such," _the voice continued, sounding as if it came from within Tetsuya's own head. _"Nakago's tribe, the Hin, worshiped me."_

"But he was a Seiryuu warrior. What was he, polytheistic?"

"_Nakago is dead. Why does he concern you so much?" _

"Because he was evil! That man was the villain of the Universe of the Four Gods!"

"'_Evil' is relative. Or was Nakago merely portrayed that way in the simple storybook you hold in your hands?"_

"He… was."

"_Yet the Priestess of Seiryuu cannot bring herself to hold any ill will towards him."_

"She was tricked! It's different. She's just hurt and that's why she doesn't say anything."

His remark was returned by a snide laughter, causing Tetsuya to slam the book down against the table as he raised his voice at it. "Why are you telling me all this, anyway?"

"_I need you. With your attachment to this world, to it's characters, you're suitable for me to use."_

"For what? To become an underling like Nakago?"

"_Nakago no longer serves me. Too interested in being a god himself, he lost sight of his own limits, and reverence for those superior. Should I call him, however, he will answer and appear if you so wish to speak with him."_

Even though it shouldn't have excited him, he felt himself smile. "And? What is it you want from me? I'm only someone who has read the book. All I want is to protect Yui."

"_Because you have read it, you know it," _the voice answered, in a tone with sounded like praise. _"Come. The Suzaku warriors wish to be with their priestess, and only you can help them."_

"What?"

* * *

Keisuke groaned as he picked up the can of beer off the floor which he had dropped. _Tetsuya's getting this one, _he agreed with himself and nudged the door open with his foot. "I'm ba-"

For a moment, he could have sworn he saw some strange light, and at that moment, he was sure he did not see his friend. "Tetsuya? Where did you disappear to?"

Light. Disappearance. Could he have?

Setting the beer down, he carefully picked the book up off the table and flipped forward to the most recent page and began reading. "The priestesses' brother was alarmed, as his friend had vanished into the realm of the… Tetsuya!"

* * *

Tetsuya had found himself in a dream-like place. The ground beneath him was smooth enough for him to see a reflection, and orbs of some sort floated meaninglessly. It was a bright place, despite the deep colors in the surroundings, but a low mist still hung around him. He hadn't imagined any landscapes in the Universe of the Four Gods as looking quite like this, but he was sure that was where he was. He thought that if this day ever came, he would be shocked when he realized where he was, but instead he accepted it quickly and looked around for the one who had brought him there. "Tenkou! What do you mean, the warriors want to join their priestess? You mean that they all can incarnate into our world like Taka did?"

The very idea made his eyes sting with tears. It was clear that Tamahome had loved Miaka enough to disappear from this place and find a new place in reality. If only the others- particularly those who had died- could go to Miaka as well. If only he could have the chance to meet them! He had cried when these characters died, he cheered for them in their battles. He knew he was a big fan of the Suzaku warriors, but would that be enough to help them do something like become real?

"I sense what you're thinking, and you are correct. You can help them to reincarnate in their priestesses' reality."

The large figure appeared, clothed in an endless black cape and adorned with a crown and silver hair which he must had spent an eternity growing out. This was the deity, Tenkou. "Tamahome was able to go to your world because he gave up the memories of this world he was attached to. The other warriors do not yet know what must be done, as they cannot sever their ties themselves."

"Then what do you need me for?"

"Their jewels of memory. You will find them and give them to me."

* * *

"Tetsuya! Hey!" Keisuke shook the book, as if someone was supposed to fall out of it. "What in the… this has got to be a joke!"

"_So it's reality if your sister is brought here, but a joke if anyone else is?" _

"But… she's the priestess, he's just Tetsuya!" he replied, not bothering to wonder where the rough voice had come from. The rough voice grumbled for him to get in there, and no sooner than he heard that was he dragged in as well. It was like being on a roller coaster you weren't strapped in for, screaming in panic for it not to leave until you're buckled. He covered his head and waited for some kind of impact, but instead, everything felt still. The voice told him to open his eyes, and when he looked around, he was a mountain landscape. With orbs.

"It's not anything you shouldn't be familiar with."

"I shouldn't?" he still looked around, wide-eyed. "Then this is the Universe of the Four Gods? But I'm not a priestess! The only person with the power to bring me here would have to be--" he paused and placed the voice to a description he had heard before. With out turning his head, he smiled as it dawned on him. "Oh. Then I should be familiar with you, too, shouldn't I… Taiitsukun?"

"You're quick. Then I'm sure you've figured out why you're here."

He turned around to face her confidently, but quickly looked away again with a gag reflex before more slowly turning to face her again. "No, why did you bring Tetsuya here?"

"I didn't," her veins pulsed through the wrinkles in her forehead, indicating her annoyance. "I need you to get him back out of it."

* * *

"Tell me more," urged Tetsuya. "What jewels of memory? I haven't heard of these."

"Each of the remaining warriors found a gem when Tamahome departed from this world. It is somewhere close to their hearts, even if they themselves are not aware of where that may be. You know the warriors, and will be able to find out where these most precious possessions are hidden, and then you will give them to me to vanquish and set them free of their memories."

"Is that all there is to it?" asked he. How simple, he thought, and did he really know them well enough to figure out a menial task such as this? Why couldn't Tenkou tell the warriors so they could set themselves free?

"They are attached, but it is for their own good that they relinquish their possessions. You must not tell them why you need these memories from them. If they know, they will still cling to them in their minds, and their souls will not be able to reincarnate where they belong: with their priestess."

"But how do I find them? I don't even know where they are. I'm really just a normal guy."

The deity grinned, as if to suggest that that could be changed.

* * *

"Jewels of Tamahome's memories?" Keisuke clarified with Taiitsukun. "Let me get this straight. He gave up his memories of this world, and they took the form of seven jewels, which were given to the other warriors. And that Tenkou guy wants these… why?"

"They have great power. He could be capable of devastating things in this world as well as in your own if he attains them all."

"I see. So, do we have to get them to Taka instead?"

"If he wants them he may have them. If not, it's no harm done."

"Uh huh. And you say that Tenkou is going to use Tetsuya as a kind of minion to get this done himself?"

"Yes. I do not even know what kind of lies he'll tell him."

"You know," Keisuke buried his face in his palm, "this is a really stupid plot twist."

"I hate to say that I agree," she continued grumbling, as if she knew no other way to speak. "Well, hurry up and go find him and get him out of here. Dealing with Tenkou would be much easier if he didn't have any ties to your world."

"Why'd a couple of guys like us have to get dragged into this?" griped he, "Aren't Miaka and Yui supposed to be the important ones here? Why didn't you call Miaka?"

"Don't bring them into this," she snapped. "This world doesn't need to see the priestesses anymore. Likewise, those girls don't deserve to suffer anymore here."

"I don't think Miaka would suffer to see this place again."

"Perhaps, but how difficult do you think it would be to force her back out again?"

"Okay, point taken! My sister sticks like peanut butter. I still don't see why Tenkou had to use Tetsuya, though."

"He could read his heart, and it helped that he was already familiar with this world. I had to call you because you know him well, and are the only one who can get him out."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm the good friend."

"But also," she took a more serious tone, "I should think that you'd be interested in saving Taka from disappearing."

His throat sank to his knees. "What?"

"If Tenkou attains all of the jewels, Tamahome… Taka will cease to exist."

* * *

What was this feeling? A sense of energy pulsing through his hands, as if he was more alive now than he had ever been before? And yet a sense of calmness and control. What had Tenkou done to him?

"You're one of my chosen now," Tenkou breathed. "My servant to whom I have bestowed power. Use it however you wish in order to bring me the jewels."

"A servant…" he lifted his hand to his forehead, where there was a thin crown. The rest of his clothes had been changed as well, more fitting of a place with Chinese influence. "A chosen one, huh?"

"One of my chosen kings. Now go."

* * *

"He'll… no! That's not fair, not after everything he's been through to be with Miaka now!" Keisuke felt his hands shaking at the thought. "He can't!"

"Many things are not fair," Taiitsukun closed her eyes as she spoke to him like a grandmother does when disciplining an ignorant child. "But you have the chance to make sure that the other warriors protect their jewels, thereby protecting Taka's existence."

"Of course! But… how am I supposed to find them? Are you going to give me a magical compact or something? And besides, most of them are dead! I can't see ghosts!"

"I suppose a giving you a gift would be reasonable, as it was I who called you here," she returned to grumbling. She fumbled in her sleeve, reaching for something, then pulled her bony hand out as if she threw something, but he could see nothing. "There."

He was about to complain that he had nothing, but then noticed a necklace with a small white-jade pendant hanging from his neck. He was surprised, and before asking was it did, she explained that it would react when he was near the jewels of memory. "Well, if it's close to where the warriors would have something important, than it'd be close to where they are, I guess. Hey! This means I'll get to meet the other warriors!"

"Well then, get going, Keisuke. I want Tetsuya and your world's influence out of here as soon as possible."


	3. Unfruitful meetings

**Author Fangirling: **This time it will be Tetsuya's part first, then Keisuke's. They'll always be separated with a bar. Oh, and since I forgot to say it on the first two installments (because it hardly seems necessary), Fushigi Yuugi and all it's characters do not belong to me. Happy reading today, four of your favorite characters will make appearances!

* * *

I guess that makes me the hero in this book now. So, where exactly do I start? If I were a Suzaku warrior, where would I be hiding? Someplace important.

Come to think of it, where am I? When I just willed myself somewhere else, this was where I wound up. Snow was everywhere. Had I completely missed Konan?

"Crap!" I yelled to no one, except maybe the snow flakes. First day and I had already screwed up on the job. These powers from Tenkou would have to take some getting used to, but all I had wanted at the time was to go somewhere important. I would have tried to focus on thinking of some other place in this world which I had read about, but the wind was too loud for me to hear myself think. If only Tenkou had given me fire powers like Tasuki or something.

Come to think of it, I didn't even know what kind of powers he had given me. I figured out by now that I could teleport, but besides that, nothing felt too different. My head felt strange, though, because my sunglasses had disappeared at some point. I'm so used to them that there's this irritating feeling that something is missing. Plus, this crown Tenkou gave me. It's clinging to my forehead and it feels out of place. I would have mentally complained more about it, but then I remembered what Tenkou said about 'kings'. I was one of them, but was he looking for more?

Not that it shouldn't make me feel unimportant. I already know I'm a normal guy, and I'm amazed to be here at all. Still, what is this 'king' stuff about? And this promise to see Nakago?

I'd have thought more about it, but I felt someone staring at me. Straight ahead, maybe by about fifty yards or so, there was a person standing in the snow. She wasn't wearing a coat or anything, so maybe she had wound up there by mistake like I did. She didn't seem bothered by it, but looked surprised as we made eye contact.

She was a fairly attractive person, and had an eerie glow. While we stared, it was like the wind went silent. I had heard about those women in the snow who lure men to their deaths, and while I didn't think she was one of them, it was what she reminded me of. Her expression got warmer, but then she disappeared. Like a ghost!

It was right then that I understood: that wasn't a woman at all, but the ghost of Nuriko! This must have been the mountain where he fought Ashitare and died! "Wait! Come back!" I yelled, and ran to where he had been standing. Maybe, just maybe the jewel of memory was there! I dug with my bare hands in the snow, but nothing like that was there. Although, I did find a piece of wood sticking out of the snow. I paused. This must have been where they had marked Nuriko's grave, and he had just come to pay himself a visit. It had to have been somewhere, the memory jewel. Nuriko didn't seem like the type to put a lot of importance on this place where he passed on. I didn't know where else to look for him, though, except maybe somewhere in the Konan palace, but I'm sure he had more places to go than that.

Grave sites might just be handy, though! The wind wasn't bothering me so much anymore, so I closed my eyes and just willed myself to another place. I wish it was this easy in Japan! At first I thought I screwed up because I was all alone on a roof top, but when I looked around more, I did recognize that this was some kind of monastery. Probably _that _monastery. It kind of made me happy or proud or something. Here I was, standing on this altar, and thinking, "This is where you were when you summoned Seiryuu, huh?"

If I was going to find someone, he was going to be inside. It was a lot quieter here, and warmer. It was still pretty drab inside, with art that looked Hindu or something. I don't know, I'm not an expect, I haven't gotten to that part of mythology or religion. There was a lot of dust, too. There must not have been any new monks for a while.

I did find another ghost, though. He glowed like Nuriko did, but didn't bother noticing when I came in. It was large room filled with giant rubble. Something violent had happened here before. The ghost- a kid- was curled up with his face behind his knees, like he was crying. I should have been more reverent, but I was so excited that I couldn't contain myself: "Chiriko!"

"Ah!" the ghost jerked and quickly looked around.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--"

"Ahhhh!" he jumped backwards when he noticed me. "How-- how did you know I was here? You can see me?"

Good, this one wasn't running away (though it looked like I scared the heck out of him anyway). It was so exciting to be here- face to face- with this person I had read all about! "That's because I already know you," I tried to sound comforting, but I noticed my voice was cracking. Dang this habit of getting too emotional. "I knew you'd be here, where you sacrificed yourself."

Aw, crap. I probably looked pretty stupid while trying to keep from crying. But I understood! I knew what happened! I half expected him to be disturbed that I was crying, but instead, some kind of desperate look came over him and he started to cry, too.

So we both just stood there and bawled. Good thing no was reading this part, I hope.

"But how?" he finally sniffled out, wiping his tears away with his sleeves. Enough crying, time to be rational. Typically Chiriko.

"I read about it--" I should have stopped myself sooner! Still, it wouldn't be too strange to have read something about him, right? He was a national hero. "It was like I was right there." He looked flattered, but not very convinced about how much I could have understood him. Did I just sound too much like a Suzaku fan boy? "And!" I continued, "I've got some abilities of my own, and I came looking for you."

"Really?" he looked both confused and curious.

"Really!" I laughed. Sure I had powers, I just didn't know what any of them were! And I probably shouldn't have gotten him interested in me. I can't tell him about my mission just yet. It'll be better if I can just find his memory jewel without him noticing. "Why are you here? I hope you don't spend all your time as a ghost here."

"No, not at all," he was almost a little too quick to shake his head and use a hushed voice. Wiping the last of the tears in his eyes away, he explained, "sometimes I just feel dragged back here."

Was this a clue? I looked around for any glint of a gem, but there was only the dust on the destruction. "I'm sure you had other more important places from your life. Thirteen years, but only a short time was spent here! There's got to be places you loved more. Back in Konan, I bet?"

"You seem very interested," he smiled. I was acting too excited, wasn't I?

"Well, I've always wondered. I've actually always wanted to meet you. To be honest," I blushed and scratched my head. Lying was never my strong suit, so I might as well have just been honest, even if it was going to make me look bad. "The Suzaku warriors are my heroes. I've really respected you guys for a long time now."

Blushing, Chiriko looked at the floor and smiled, but his mouth wavered like he was in disbelief. "A hero?"

"You, too! I really, really respect what you did!"

"Thank you," he reached up to wipe away tears again. I guess being dead didn't give him many opportunities to feel flattered. "I can understand how interested you must be, then."

What a great kid, really. I was so fortunate to be in a position to help him see Miaka again. "Say, how about we go somewhere a little happier for you?" I put my hand on his shoulder. I expected it to go through, but maybe because of the powers Tenkou gave me, my hand just rested against him. "I can already imagine one place."

* * *

Well gee, thanks, Taiitsukun. I can see why some people don't like you.

She kicked me off of Mt. Taikyoku onto some road somewhere, with nothing but the clothes on my back, the stuff in my pockets, and the necklace dangling at the bottom of my sternum. Real handy, Taiitsukun. (Apparently, I'm a more sarcastic person than I thought.)

The first thing to do was… was…

What the hell was I supposed to do!? Find Tetsuya first and drag him back? Or find these jewels of memory or whatever to save Taka? Where was I supposed to start looking first? The old witch didn't even give me a map! I'm not a priestess, so can't she afford to make things just a little bit easier for me?

The first thing to do, I decided, was take a nap. At least I wouldn't be going in the wrong direction if I stayed under that tree for a while. The weather here was pretty nice. I relaxed, but didn't feel drowsy at all. Instead of sleeping, I picked up the necklace she gave me and looked at it a little closer. It was just a simple shape like half a yin-yang, and just a cloudy white stone. There weren't any special inscriptions or anything like that. What would it do, anyway? Would it light up with kanji characters if one of the warriors was nearby, like Miaka's compact would? It was only half the size of my finger, so would there even be enough room?

Geez. If this new plot in the Universe of the Four Gods was going to get going at all, one of the warriors was just going to have to walk up to me like it always happened for Miaka. Lucky little brat-- "Ow!!"

The necklace started glowing in a hot white between my fingers and I had to drop it. It must have been reacting to something. I looked around the tree and down the path to see if anyone had come; it was just as empty as before. Then who could have set it off-- "aah!!"

I was just startled, that's all. I wasn't afraid of the little "meow" next to me and the brush of fur. It was just a little white cat. Completely harmless. Maybe the necklace just had an allergy or something--

"Wha'd you find here no da?"

"Eeegyaaahhhh!!"

Alright, that time I admit I was scared. I mean, first of all, the guy came out of no where, and second of all, his face was… well… it didn't look like a face. It had to have been some kind of mask. A mask! "You're… you're… you're…!!"

"You're acting like you've been in the sun too much," he tilted his head at me with a wry smile. "Here, you need a hat?" he placed it on my head, and gave it a little pat. "You should get yourself some water, too, no da."

"I don't need that! I need you to come with me!"

Now it looked like I had scared the poor monk, as he inched away, making it look like I was the crazy person. "Sorry, but I've already got a traveling companion," he gestured down to the cat. Mitsukake's cat, of course!

"But I need you to help me find the jewels of memory! It's the only way to help Taka!"

He just shook his head and backed away a few steps. "Sorry, I'm really not interested in traveling with anyone else right now. I'm still trying to recover from the last time I did that."

"Recover…?"

"Or I guess you can call it 'healing' no da." Even with his mask on, his expression looked like he was trying very hard not to look sad, but he wasn't doing a very good job. Tetsuya had mentioned before how he thought we were still 'healing', but for everything I read, I can't imagine how much more Chichiri needed this kind of thing. He still hadn't even taken care of some past wounds, had he? "Good luck anyway. Go ahead and keep the hat."

And just like that, he was gone. I didn't even get the chance to introduce myself as the Priestess of Suzaku's brother! At least with this hat, I might be able to get someplace better. If this was like his other hat, it could suck me into any kind of other place, right?

It was worth a try, if I had it here in my hands anyway. I gulped, and peered down into it. Would this hurt? Well, it couldn't be any worse than what it was like to be brought to this world. With a deep breath, I started to lower my head into it, and then wham! My forehead smashed into something, and it wasn't the hat. Did I hit a tile floor somewhere? No… I was still here, sitting on the grass and holding a hat.

A hat with a… what could this have been? Ah, right. This had to have been a Nyan-Nyan sticking out of it. "Hello, Priestess-Brother! Taiitsukun thought you could use some road side assistance!"

"Heck yes," I rubbed my aching forehead. Funny, the priestess had seven warriors to protect her, and I had… this. She hopped out, and was taller than I expected her to be. I thought she was only knee-high or something while I was reading the book. "How about pointing me in the direction of, oh, I don't know… the capital first."

"Aye-aye!" she hoped into the air and floated, waiting for me to stand up next to her. "I'll lead the way!"


	4. Getting familiar

**Author Fangirling: **This chapter is Tetsuya first, Keisuke second again. Sorry Tetsuya's section is so short, but he'll be getting busy soon. As for Nyan-Nyan, I had a lot of fun with that conversation. Save a Tamaneko today, leave a review.

* * *

I closed my eyes and Chiriko closed his. There was a slight whirring sound, and the ground slipped away from my feet for a moment, but soon I felt the ground beneath me again and then looked around. Chiriko did as well, and had a surprised look on his face. "This is the imperial library!"

"Yeah," I nodded. Good, I had gotten to the right place! "This is where you would have apprenticed to become a government official, isn't it?"

"Yes," he didn't look away from robed scholars who were busily flipping through books. He reminded me of a little kid sitting in front of an ant hill, fully engrossed in the action that other people would just ignore. It was sweet, but I can't say I really found the action all that interesting myself. "Had I taken and passed the next set of exams, in any case."

"That's right," I frowned. This was his dream that got taken away from him the moment that Seiryuu monster of a warrior took over his body. It was unfair that he'd never get this chance again. I wonder, though, what kind of opportunities he'd have in our world. There's no more tests like these, but he could get a research grant of some kind, or work in a lab, or he could even start college early and join the club with me and Tetsuya and Taka! "Did you ever get a chance to look around here?"

He didn't respond. Something else caught his attention instead, and he was furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. "How come no one can see you? You aren't deceased as well, are you?"

"They can't, can they?" I looked back. No one had noticed us at all. Maybe this is was one of the powers Tenkou gave me?

"Who are you?"

"Oh! Sorry, I'm Tetsuya. Nice to meet you."

"...Nice to meet you, too."

"So, Chiriko, why don't you show me where you would have been working if you had been here?"

* * *

It was really the imperial palace of Konan!

"You should close your mouth, Priestess-Brother. Bugs will fly in. Chomp chomp!"

"But it's huge!"

"What did you expect?"

"I… I don't know, I just never pictured it that well in my mind. How am I supposed to get in there?"

"Through a door, silly."

"Ah ha. Right," I rolled my eyes, and started towards the palace with Nyan-Nyan. That required going through the market place, where naturally, I stuck out and everyone was watching me. None of them were daring enough to approach, though, so I had nothing to worry about. It's the spider mentality: they're more afraid of me than I am of them.

I'll bet they thought Nyan-Nyan was pretty strange, too. Little girls probably didn't usually dress like that, and even if they didn't, I bet they'd stare anyway. She's unusually cute.

If I recall, Miaka did say something about the Nyan-Nyan actually being grown women when she last saw them, so that might be their 'true' form. Whose to say that there's even more than one? What if it's just this one Nyan-Nyan, and she just has many duplicated forms. I wonder what she'd look like as an adult.

"What's the matter, Priestess-Brother?"

"Nothing, just thinking to myself." Had she noticed my thoughts? That would be embarrassing. Especially since I was just thinking about how everyone else who has gone into this book that I know of has come out with some kind of romantic relationship. Maybe it was also my destiny to meet someone here. "So, uh… so you're the Nyan-Nyan, huh?"

"I'm _a _Nyan-Nyan."

"Then there _are _others? Are you all the same person, or what? Like, one mind, many bodies?"

"No," she giggled. It must have sounded absurd. "We're all different Nyan-Nyan."

"And you all, however many of you, just stick together?"

"Yup. All of us live on Mt. Taikyoku with Taiitsukun. Sometimes we look like this, sometimes we take different forms, like the orbs."

"Oh. Huh. I see. So, you're different, but are you all the same? Like, personality-wise?"

"We all have a Nyan-Nyan personality!"

"Then you all must get along really well, don't you? Or is it actually the opposite, and you all fight over the same stuff then?"

"Well," her smiled finally faded. "One of my sisters did tie a knot in my hair when she was bored. I got mad at her and kicked her in the chin. And one time Nyan-Nyan took my pillow while I was sleeping. So I hid her blanket. And another time Nyan-Nyan got in my way while we were giving Taiitsukun a beauty treatment. So I squirted lotion in her shoes."

"You're one of the feisty ones, then, huh?"

"Nyan-Nyan does things like that to Nyan-Nyan, too, and _she_ does the same kind of things to Nyan-Nyan. Nyan-Nyan even gave Nyan-Nyan a wedgie one time!"

Figures, they all had the same name. I should have expected as much.

"We all start to feel mean when we're bored. One time, Nyan-Nyan tried to take Taiitsukun's undergarment- that thing the Priestess called a 'bra'-- and she--"

"Nyan-Nyan, people don't want to hear those kinds of things!"

"No one but you can hear me, it's fine," she pointed brightly to all the people. They were staring at me now not only because I was wearing foreign clothes, but I was crazy enough to be talking to an invisible friend, too. Someone's going to arrest me sooner or later, I know it. "Anyway, I'm so-o-o-o-o happy you came here, Priestess-Brother!" she floated- or jumped- up to my neck to give me a hug. "Now it won't be so boring for a little while!"

"Well, happy to help," I pushed a smile. No, I couldn't imagine forming any kind of relationship with her like that at all. I think I should go throw up until the thought is completely out of my mind.

"The necklace!" she leaned forward to look down at the stone. "It's reacting to something!"

"One of the warriors- or at least their jewel of memory must be near by!"

I forgot that people were already suspicious of me and made a mad dash for the palace. It was a huge place, but it felt like the stone was getting pulled, or somehow, pulling me to the right place. I didn't see any throne room or anything like that, but there were winding halls, and then a couple large doors. Get out of the way, doors!

I threw them open and saw the crowded library inside. There were old men in cloaks everywhere, and they all stopped whatever they were doing as soon as I burst in. I didn't actually notice them right away; my attention went to the one person in the room I recognized. "Tetsuya!"

He was on the other side and didn't seem to notice me, despite how everyone else did. The little kid next to him didn't notice either, and they both kept talking and walked behind a shelf, so I lost sight of them before I call out again and get their attention.

I would have called again, but I already had too much of everyone else's attention. Suddenly, there were all these guards, all pointing spears at me! What could I do? Nothing! But Nyan-Nyan, she could probably--

"Sorry, Priestess-Brother, I have to go look for the other warriors now."

"Aren't there other Nyan-Nyan to do that instead!?"

"Bye-bye!"

She disappeared. Great, I had already been dumped.

Well, that was probably it. I'd either get thrown in jail or get my head cut off right there. Good bye, world!

Good bye…

Maybe I spoke too soon. Someone, though he didn't even look like he was in flesh and blood, was there and knocking the guards away. Was it time for me to escape?

"Run," the stranger looked back over his shoulder to me. It would have been smarter to have done what he said, but I was surprised at first. I couldn't figure out if this person was a man or a woman because the skin was so smooth but the features looked so masculine. Not that I was on the look out for my star-crossed lover or anything, no! I had just never seen anyone like that! "Run!" the person said again. It sounded like a pretty deep voice that time, so I guessed it was a man. Then my feet started moving and ran, but to where, I didn't know! The necklace was no help, it was just a glowing piece of rock. It didn't even do anything like give me a compass!

I could hear the pretty-man's voice again, but I didn't look around to see where it was coming from. "Three doors down on your right, quietly slip into that room and hide for the time being."

One… two… three doors.

I opened it quickly and just as quickly shut it behind me, but waited to catch my breath until I heard some heavy footsteps- probably those of whoever cared enough to pursue me- had gone away. "Phew," I breathed, but I guess that was more startling to the other person in the room than even my having slammed the door.

It was a dark room, but across from me there was a slender woman sitting up in a bed, looking dazed in my direction, wondering why I was in her room.

If this was even a woman! She looked exactly like I pictured Nuriko. My exact mental image! The necklace was still reacting, so… was this him?


	5. Unwilling

**Author fangirling: **A little action and more interaction this time, yaaay~! Once again, reviews are loving read over and over and appreciated. Enjoy!

* * *

"Why are you in here?" she asked, sounding like she had to use all her strength to speak. If it was a she, anyway. Miaka told me once that Nuriko had a mole by his eye, so I looked for it. It was dark, but it didn't look like anything was there anyway. I probably should have noticed her belly sooner, too. At first, it looked like she had let herself go, but the rest of her looked too slender--she had to have been pregnant.

A pregnant woman in the palace who looks like Nuriko. Well, duh, that didn't take long to figure out. "Lady Houki!" I got on my knees and apologized for being so rude. Here was I, a normal guy, in the bedroom of an empress! That had to have been Hotohori's child, meaning it had to have only been four or five months since Miaka left.

"Yes?" she acknowledged, but looked most like she wanted to be left alone to rest. "Do I need to eat now? It didn't seem like it was time yet."

"No, no! I just… nothing." I couldn't tell her that. If it was nothing, then I should have marched right back out and faced the guards. "Actually, some guy told me to come in here. I don't know who or why." Well, the 'why' part was to save my ass, but telling her that would have been counterproductive.

"And you listened anyway?"

"Ah… well, uh. I'll be right out of here. Really. Just don't tell anyone I was here!"

She probably felt too tired to care and fell back into her pillow. To be that exhausted, I wondered if she was having any complications with her pregnancy? That could be disastrous for Konan right now if the baby weren't to survive. Did she have a fever? If so, shouldn't I tell someone?

"Houki, stay strong."

The voice I heard earlier! But from where?

"Your necklace is glowing."

"Still? It must be around here somewhere," I briefly eye-balled it, but then looked back up at Houki's bed to see someone else sitting on it. The guy from before! "You're the guy who saved me!"

"You can see me?" he flashed a little smile. "How fortunate for you."

"See you?" _Then are you dead? _was what was about to come out of my mouth next, but it was obvious: "Hotohori!"

"You know my celestial name," he smiled again. "How odd. Are you some kind of special being? I'm not aware of any other living celestial warriors, especially not from regions with that style of clothing."

"No, I'm not a warrior at all! But I was looking for you warriors anyway!"

"Then you're a _priest_ of some kind? Preposterous!" he laughed a little to himself. "Where have you come from?"

"Tokyo. It's where the Priestess of Suzaku is from. Actually, I'm her--"

"No, it's not," Hotohori looked defensive and sharpened his glance at me. "Her homeland was called 'Japan.' Please do not make lies about knowing someone you don't."

"No, she's really my sister. My little sister, Miaka!"

He looked both fond and shocked at the moment I said her name, but didn't change his tone. "Then you would have to have come from her world. There is no way anyone besides the priestesses of the four gods can come here from your world."

"Taiitsukun doesn't seem to see it that way."

"Taiitsukun wouldn't see it that way, and wouldn't allow it."

"Well that's only--" I stopped and sighed. Playing this game wouldn't get me anywhere. Hotohori had grown up knowing stuff about this, and I was just some dumb guy who nearly got into trouble with the guards. "Let me start at the beginning. I am Miaka's brother, Keisuke. There's an evil guy who is trying to take away Tamahome's memories, which would make Taka disappear."

"Tamahome's memories?" he sounded more alarmed. "Where is Tamahome?"

"…what? You don't know?"

"He disappeared."

"Taiitsukun really doesn't fill you in on anything, does she?"

"I don't spend much time with Taiitsukun, if I can help it."

"I'll give you that one. Tamahome, actually, was able to take form in our world- mine and Miaka's world! He just had to give up all his memories of this world to do it."

"Did he?" he looked surprised again, so I gave him a moment to soak it in. He closed his eyes peacefully and thought a moment more before saying, "I'm happy for them. Who would be trying to get his memories, and how can I help?"

Good! Things were looking up for me on my mission. "Actually, his memories have been sealed into seven jewels, one of which was given to each warrior. I'll bet yours is around here somewhere," I looked surveyed the space. What with all the craftsmanship, it looked just like the set of a kung fu movie or something! "Taiitsukun gave me this necklace to help locate them, but I haven't found any yet."

"A jewel of memory? I'm afraid I haven't seen anything like that," he said in a low voice, then looked back down at Houki's sleeping face. "Could it have been given to someone in my stead?"

"I don't know."

We fell silent for a moment. Was something wrong with Houki that he knew about? He didn't just look sad, he looked worried. He probably noticed I was watching him (no, he probably had a sensor just for knowing when people were looking at him), and side-glanced back at me. "She's been like this since she started grieving for me."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I can only imagine the full impact of my death on the entire country."

"Yeah, well…" I trailed off. I had thought when I was reading that part in the book that he was stupid for going up against Nakago with no powers. Saying anything like that wasn't going to help anyone now, though. "Still, you did wound Nakago pretty bad, and that might have made it easier for Tamahome to defeat him later."

"It's strange that you would know that," he raised an eyebrow.

"Ahh-- umm… I'm her brother, don't you think Miaka would have told me something like that?"

"Hnnn." His expression looked like he was sizing me up.

"Hey! Do you not believe me? Were the clothes not enough of a hint?"

"They don't quite resembles Miaka's."

"That's only because I don't wear a school uniform!" I shuttered at the thought of myself in any of Miaka's clothes.

"And there's no resemblance. Miaka's skin was much smoother, and her eyes were brighter. Her hair was also less oily."

"We're siblings, not twins! What do you want, a DNA test?"

"Dien-ei? What is that?"

"It means we have the same genes! Or close to the same, or something. I'm not a biologist, don't ask me."

"Additionally, I still do not understand why Miaka's brother instead of Miaka herself would be here, particularly if it is in regard to Tamahome. However," he stood from the bed and looked ready to leave, "if you're here on Tamahome's behalf, I shall have to trust you and help you."

Beggars can't be choosers, so I let the sibling issue drop. "Thank you, Your Highness."

* * *

"That man," Chiriko had a very bubbly smile, "is the man I would I have assisted here most during my training to become an official."

It was an old guy with a long beard and beady eyes. He looked like a scholar, I guess. All he was doing was talking to a few other young students, but none quite as young as Chiriko. "How do you know?"

"He heard about my results on the earlier exam I took, and took enough of an interest to sponsor me. He bought me books and would tutor me when he was visiting my town. He was a very nice man."

"Did he also tell you that you were a Suzaku warrior?"

"I already had a guess about my mark, but he did make it a point to state it," he nodded, then frowned. "It was then that it started to disappear more often."

"Maybe you were just embarrassed, or too conscious of it."

"I don't know. My biggest fear when it started doing that was that it would disappear while I took the exam. …So much for that now."

"Don't be too down," I tried to encourage him, but there's limits to how much you can encourage a dead person without getting a guilty conscience. "You've got to still have some hope around here somewhere. Something you left behind, that you're too attached to. Maybe it's taken form. Some kind of form."

He looked befuddled. "What are you getting at?"

Beating around the bush was never my strong point. "A jewel. Actually, something important to you has taken the form of a jewel, and it's lost around here somewhere."

"A jewel?" asked he. "It's there. That's mine," he pointed down to a pouch the old man had. "I noticed it appear there before. Tetsuya? What are you…?"

Not to startle the old man, but I didn't want to fiddle around with the pouch tied to his waist while he was conscious if I could avoid it. Though he couldn't see me, I put my hand in front of his eyes. I had never done anything like this time before, but with these powers, every action seemed to make more sense. Each unusual actions had a purpose I didn't understand. The moment I touched him, some power went out of me, and the man collapsed. Even with how quickly the other scholars reacted, it was easy to just bend down and pick up the sack. I poured it out into my hand, and there was a yellow jewel. Success!

The little ghost grabbed my elbow and pulled, trying to force my arms down. "What did you do to him? Don't touch that!"

"Ah, this? It's very important," I smiled back down at it. Without this, Chiriko would be the first warrior freed to go join Miaka and Taka!

"Yes, it is. It belongs to Tamahome, it was given to me to be responsible for!"

"…Tamahome?"

"I'm not entirely sure why," he looked a little less confident, but still held his determination. "But I'm sure he'll need that someday. Put it back, you shouldn't have that!"

"Ah, no, this? This is yours," I corrected him. "But for your own good, I need to get rid of it."

"No! Why are you doing this?"

"I know you want to keep it. It's important to you," I smiled. It couldn't hurt to tell him something now just to settle his nerves. "But if you don't get rid of it, you won't be able to see Miaka again."

That one hit a nerve; he lost his grip. "Miaka? How is she?"

"Aw. You really want to see her, huh?"

"Of course! There's nothing more important to a warrior than his priestess."

"Aww. Did you have a little case of puppy love?"

"Nothing of the sort!" he blushed, "but she is very important to me anyway. Seeing her again, though… that would mean having to go to her world," he clenched his eyes shut, "which cannot be done. Now please, put back the jewel."

"It's not impossible at all. You see, once I give this to Tenkou, he'll allow you to reincarnate---"

"What did you say?" he shot back up. _Good_, I thought, _he likes the idea_! He tossed those thoughts out: "I've read something about Tenkou. He should never be allowed to get this jewel! Put it back! Do you work for him?" he now tried to jump and reach to snatch it out of my hands. "Don't give it to him! Monster!"

"No!" I shook him off. "You're wrong. This is something you just can't understand!"

"Don't give it to him! Those jewels have some kind of power. If he gets them, he'll--"

"No, you're wrong! Just you wait. You'll see, you'll meet Miaka again, I promise! Of course, you probably won't even remember that I did this for you. You can't have any memories of this world," I held up the jewel as I explained, and his eyes darted back to it.

"Don't do it." As he said this, he started to glow in a red light and looked very angry. It made my knees shake a bit to watch the transformation. "Give it back!"

The very next second, a scroll was wrapped tightly around my arm and hand, but I could still see and feel the jewel in my grip. He held the other end of it and pulled, and my arm jerked towards him. No! I couldn't let him have it! "No!" I shouted back, and just wanted to repel him. So it happened. The instant I thought that, power surged from my body, and it forced him and his scroll a ways away from me. He yelped and smacked into a wall, then slid down, as if physical structures and gravity still had their impact on him. I knew I couldn't have hurt him, he was ghost. A ghost who was now out of my way and struggling to look back up at me.

"…Give it back…" he said again and started reaching.

No. I had saved him, and had to leave before I could argue about it anymore. So I disappeared, leaving the library behind.


	6. Apparition

"Has the necklace only been reacting in here?"

"No, it was glowing just as much out in the hall by the library. I wish it'd be a little more specific."

"It could be generally saying that there is one in the palace somewhere," he mused, "or could there be two?"

"We have no way of knowing," I sighed. I shouldn't have complained about the gift from Taiitsukun, but hell, would I have been willing to. "Should we go back and check the library?"

"Provided you don't get into any more trouble with the guards. Try to be a little bit more inconspicuous."

"If you have a change of clothes, gladly."

"I have plenty of clothes. I'm afraid I can't carry any of them in this form, and leading you to them would only cause more of a fuss."

"Whatever. Just bail me out somehow if I get in trouble."

We walked back to the library, and the halls were empty. A little too empty for comfort. I should have known something was wrong. It was a clear shot to the library, and just to be on the safe side, I peaked around the door before going in.

Figures that's where all the people were! There was some kind of commotion in there, and there were papers everywhere. It looked like a small tornado hit or something. "What's going on in there?"

"Sssh," Hotohori put a finger to his lips. "They're saying one of the senior government officials has been killed."

"A murder!?"

"That's him!" bellowed an unfamiliar voice. "The suspicious character who was in the hall earlier!"

Crap. That had to be me. I would like to say that there was an eventful chase scene after that, but I had barely started running when they had my head pinned to the ground and my arms folded behind my back. "Help!!"

"I can't do anything now without causing more disturbance," said Hotohori. "I'm going to investigate a bit, just cooperate with them for the time being."

"…jerk!" Fortunately, he had already disappeared before I said that.

I got tied up much tighter than was comfortable and was brought outside to a courtyard where tons of guards still watched me and held spears out at me. Looks like I didn't have any choice but to cooperate. At least they didn't tie up my neck or gag me, and I could look down at the necklace. Damn, it had stopped glowing. Some of the guards were talking about execution, but it hardly sounded like anything to be afraid of. After all, Hotohori would come back to help. That's what Suzaku warriors do, they're always there in the nick of time.

Well, at least that's how it would work if I were the priestess. Then I started to shake.

"Priestess-Brother!" Nyan-Nyan popped out in front of me. FNobody else saw her, but maybe if they did and knew who she was, they might have let me go! "It took them a while to get you here, didn't it?"

"I've haven't been here the whole time!" I barked. "They think I murdered a government official. They're not even looking for anyone else in the library---!!"

"…what? What's the matter?"

"I just remembered. I saw Tetsuya there earlier."

Nyan-Nyan looked surprised. "Then did he...?"

"He wouldn't do anything like that," I shook my head, "He's probably gotten away by now, so even if you let me loose right away, I couldn't catch up to him."

"Nnn," she frowned and looked at the ropes, "letting you go would be easy, but the entire court would be thrown into chaos if you disappeared. You'd become a criminal at large."

"You and Hotohori both," I rolled my eyes.

"You've found His Highness?" she lit up. "Maybe he can help!"

"That's what he's already trying to do."

"Be right back~!"

The guards were murmuring by now that I was crazy or chanting demonic spells. So I waited. One of those two had to come back for me sooner or later.

* * *

I felt a little guilty to have left Chiriko so upset. It was like giving kids their vaccinations, though. They'll yell and scream at you for hurting them, but what they don't understand is that it isn't going to hurt them long, and they'll be better off for it forever. ...ugh, but it's still hard. I could never be a doctor. Yui could probably do it. She isn't sure exactly what she wants to do after high school, but whatever she puts her mind to, I'm sure she'll do great. She'd probably make a great pediatrician. Gentle and understanding, but still firm when she needs to be. I wonder what she thinks of kids?

Ah, stop it, Tetsuya. Don't start thinking anything like that quite yet, the poor girl is just a freshman in high school.

"Good work, Tetsuya."

Right. I had wound up back at Tenkou's… what was this place? A lair? That seemed like the only word for it. I held up the yellow jewel triumphantly, and it floated out of my hand to Tenkou's. He smiled. "You've already become very accustomed to your powers, I see."

"They're easy. I just think it, and it happens. There wasn't much to get used to."

"Surely they are easy for one of the kings to use."

I still didn't know what he meant by that. I wasn't a king of anything. If anything, I was more of knight. The cool one who doesn't get the recognition, but doesn't need it. Wait! I hadn't thought of all I was really capable of with this powers. Keisuke mentioned before how I couldn't expect to do much when I met Nakago, but now, I could be capable of anything. "When will I get to meet Nakago? You'll bring his spirit for me to meet, right?"

"His spirit will come," he smiled. "And you shall be able to take your anger out at him however you wish."

"Are you sure? Didn't he used to serve you? Would you just leave him high and dry like that?"

"He is the one who no longer serves me. I owe him no help," he said. "As for you, I do not see why you want so much to speak with him. What he's done is in the past, can't you just forget it?"

"Not after everything he did to Yui!"

"What did he do to her? He carried her, held her hand while she was suffering, even rescued her after her suicide attempt. He held her when she needed comfort. He saw to it that she was comfortable. He never once struck her or forced her into anything."

I burned at everything he said. "That wasn't comfort, he was tricking her the entire time! She was only hurt so much because of all the lies he told her!"

"Oh ho," the deity cocked his head back like he was amused. "I won't stop you, but I'm not convinced of your anger. If you show more rage, though, you'll probably lure him out yourself."

"…No. Not yet," I turned ahead and sighed to clear my head. And with a smile, "I have a mission to help the Suzaku warriors first."

* * *

"Unhand that man."

It was Hotohori's voice. It was great he came back, but what good was saying that going to do? No one else could hear or see him.

"Your Majesty!"

"What?" I looked around. All the guards were bowing, but to what? I looked up, and there was Hotohori. He didn't look like a ghost at all, but looked like he had a distinct body with a red glow around it.

"You didn't die after all!" one of the guards said as some of them tried to touch his feet. The grown men were all sniffling on their tears.

"No, I did in fact die," he smiled as if to make light of the subject. "It is just necessary for me to make an appearance to you at this time. This man is innocent. As you could see from the official's body, there was no trace of violence. The force that the other scholars reported which caused damage to the library should be investigated, but it was not this man's doing. He was with me while it happened."

"He's a ghost, too!?"

"No, he's simply innocent."

The guards didn't ask any more questions of the apparition of their emperor, and quickly started to untie me. Hotohori looked up to me and smiled, and I resisted rolling my eyes at him. "Didn't want to make a fuss, huh?"

"Nyan-Nyan and I wanted to clear you of any suspicion immediately," he looked down at his arm when he mentioned her, "Whatever caused the disturbance was powerful."

"Oh, then it automatically rules me out because I'm the normal one around here," I griped, but then stopped. "Nyan-Nyan? That's her body?"

"It's me!" a disembodied voice answered.

"But that's… that's just weird!"

"It's what we did when Miaka summoned Suzaku in Japan," he said, "not that we would like to abuse this ability of Nyan-Nyan's."

"That's right," I thought. I hadn't actually been close enough to the action to see all the warriors there, but I heard about it later.

"Your Highness, we are most grateful for your appearance, as temporary as it may be," an official- maybe the prime minister- walked up, looking a little teary-eyed himself. "We are mourning for you terribly."

Hotohori looked shocked for a moment, and didn't bother to answer them before he darted back inside of the castle. What in the world could he have been doing?


	7. Cell phones

**Author Fangirling: **Like the last chapter, this one is Keisuke-Tetsuya-Keisuke. Don't worry, Tetsuya will be busier later.

* * *

Of course. He went to be at Houki's side. Once I was untied, I was able to run after him a bit faster than any of the officials, partly because I was younger and more in shape but more likely because I was wearing jeans and sneakers instead of their robes. The necklace bounced around at my chest and sides, and I noticed that had it started glowing hot-white again.

Hotohori's jewel of memory had to be around here, somewhere in Houki's room. I got to the door he had left open and panted. I got there just in time to hear him shout her name.

"Highness!" she shouted back and flung herself from the bed, but hadn't been strong enough to support herself. The moment her feet touched the ground she started to fall forward. I flinched, expecting her to hit the ground flat on her stomach and hurt the prince!

Fortunately, Hotohori was fast enough to catch her. She didn't look up at him for a moment, but instead felt shocked that she was actually in someone's arms. It would have been one thing to see his ghost, but entirely another to be held up by him. She looked up soon enough, and they stared longingly, then held tighter.

And then my water-works started. It reminded me of when Suzuno died and was reunited with Tatara. I just felt so happy for them, but the circumstances were so bitter that I couldn't contain myself. I pulled away from the door and mostly closed it, then held a hand to my mouth to keep from making any noise to disturb them.

Poor Miaka. If Taka were to disappear…

And then, of all things to interrupt my train of thought, my cell phone went off. I mentally cursed at it for going off at such a time, but answered it quickly anyway. "What is it, Miaka?"

"Hi there, just wanted to know what you wanted for dinner tonight. Mom said it's your turn to pick."

"You called just for tha--" I stopped, then thought a little more clearly. "How are you able to get a hold of me?"

"Uh… on your cell phone."

"Yes, but I'm in the book! This shouldn't be happening!"

"… how much have you been drinking?"

I stopped. Telling her this wasn't a good idea at all. Taiitsukun was right not to get the girls involved, and if Miaka knew I was here, she'd come right away. Telling her about Taka wouldn't do anything good for her right now either. She had to stay ignorant if I wanted to protect her.

She paused too, then asked a little softer, "…are you serious?"

"Nope! You're totally right, I'm plastered! Ha ha ha! That's what we get for drinking at club, huh, Tetsuya? Weeeeiird delusions!"

"Are you sure you haven't been smoking anything?"

"No! Anyway, uh… -hic- have whatever you want for dinner. I'll probably be late. Really late. Could you do me a favor, though, and tell Taka to go close up our club room? And t' put the book away?"

"Okay, fine," she sounded annoyed. "Don't expect me to save you any food."

"I wouldn't anyway. Bye."

I ended the call, and held the phone numbly in my hand. Was it just because she was the Priestess of Suzaku that she could do that? What if our cell phones were linked like her and Yui's clothes were linked? No, I decided, it was probably more likely that the book was within a service area, so our phones could still work. This might come in handy, so it's a good thing the battery on my phone is pretty good.

"Is everything alright out here, Keisuke?" Hotohori opened the door back up and asked. I looked behind him back into the room, where Houki was sitting up on the bed, looking stronger than she did before. Whatever moment they had just shared must have rejuvenated her.

"Yeah, it's fine," I lied. To change the subject, I picked the necklace back up by it's chain to show him how it was glowing. "Anyway, do you have any idea where Tamahome's memory jewel is yet?"

"No," he frowned, "and I'm very concerned if its here. You said that it was glowing by the library earlier and has since stopped over there. I believe that the earlier commotion was due to someone taking it."

"Like your friend! You said he was there earlier!"

"Nyan-Nyan!" I shushed her, and she seemingly stepped out of Hotohori's chest and floated comfortably in front of him. Hotohori's form returned to that of a pale ghost.

"I'd like to help Tamahome in any way I can, but I want to stay here for the time being, just in case anyone comes back looking for my jewel."

"I understand. That's a good idea," I nodded, though I was a little sad to be down a comrade. At least I'd know where to find him again, unlike Chichiri, who could be anywhere. Nyan-Nyan and I said goodbye to him, and left the palace. Along the way, the guards were bowing to me, though they probably didn't have any clue who I was or why Hotohori had made an appearance just because I was there. Soon, we were back outside of the capital, and the necklace didn't have any kind of glow at all.

We were all alone back on the road again, and things were pretty quiet. That usually bugs me, especially with someone as chipper as Nyan-Nyan around. "That was pretty nice of you to let Hotohori use your body like that."

"We're made to be useful, after all." She smiled, but it didn't look very honest.

"You seem to have a problem with that."

"It feels gross," she wrinkled her nose. "But we aren't allowed to complain about things like that."

"Taiitsukun doesn't even allow you to complain?"

"No, we complain all the time about everything. Like how there's no rain on Mt. Taikyoku so we can never go puddle-splashing. Taiitsukun usually just throws us in a lake then. And we complain about how crowded our sleeping quarters are, so she usually makes us sleep in our orb forms so we can't talk, but then we have cramps in the morning. And sometimes I complain when Nyan-Nyan takes my clothes with out asking."

"But they're all the same, aren't they?"

"They're still mine!" she folded her arms and made a face.

"So then you guys change clothes?"

"Of course!" she looked happy again. She was like the little queen of mood swings. "We have to bathe, too!"

"I guess I had no idea how normal you all were."

"We're not normal," she wrinkled her nose as she smiled again. "We're Nyan-Nyan. The tasks we're made for are the ones we're not allowed to complain about. Even we have to have some discipline."

"Ah," I said, for lack of anything else. "So, do you not like being a Nyan-Nyan?"

"I love it~!" she chirped and did a little flip in the air, and then flashed a peace-sign and a big smile. "It's way better than being normal or something!"

"Yeah, thanks," I rolled my eyes. "We normal people take no offense to that."

"That's good."

Apparently she didn't understand sarcasm. "How about we look for someone who is alive, next? That would leave… Tasuki! He'd be on Mt. Reikaku, right? With the bandits?"

"You bet!" she said, and then burst out and popped into the form of a large pink bubble. I yelped in surprise, and tried to shield my face when she started to absorb me into the space inside of her. The next thing I knew, I was floating off the ground, and we were zooming across the landscape.

"Whoa!" I looked out. I must have looked a little too excited. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Nope! This will be way faster. Walking is boring!"

"You better hope I don't get too used to this and start bugging you to do it more often."

"I'd just leave if you annoyed me too much, don't worry!"

"…sure."

We were going for a little while, but then a… a something. I don't know what it was, but it freaked me out and the only way I could describe it was by yelling "demon!!"

It had a scythe for a hand and slashed at the Nyan-Nyan bubble, popping it and spitting me out on the ground. My cheek burned where it had scraped against the ground, but I looked around for Nyan-Nyan right away. She was sprawled out on the ground a few feet away, and I thought maybe she was dead, so I called out her name. She sat up, a little dazed like she had a headache, but her face changed to show her fierceness once she caught sight of the demon. She yelled a ki-ai, and then started casting spells to throw little balls of light at it.

It reacted to the where it was hit, but didn't even look in her direction. Instead, it came after me! What could I do? I ran, that's what the hell I could do. It chased. It had to have been after me instead of just being there and being a typical demon which attacks people at random. It just barely missed me on a few strikes, and just when I thought it was catching up to me, Nyan-Nyan caught it in a glowing net of some kind. "Priestess-Brother, get away!"

It felt a little wrong to leave her behind, but I obeyed and ran faster than I ever knew I could, not looking back at all. I was stopped promptly when the ground gave way beneath me, though.

The back of my head hit the ground pretty hard, so I crouched up into a ball and held it. Whose idea was it to but a hole here, anyway? Was it an animal trap? It worked pretty well. Hopefully, there was a hunter or someone else nearby, so I called for help.

"Heh," a burly man peeked over the opening. "Got one."

Aw crap… I was the animal it was set for, huh?

* * *

I tried to use my power again to just locate myself wherever the next warrior was, but it didn't seem to work when I got overconfident. I probably needed to have a good place to look before zapping myself anywhere. I went back to the snowed-over mountain in Hokkan hoping to find Nuriko again, but he wasn't there.

It had been a full day, and I was feeling pretty tired. It's not everyday you go to class, go to another world, get magic powers, meet a celestial warrior and rescue him. Hopefully tomorrow would only consist of the last two. For now, all I wanted was a place to sleep. And to eat. I wasn't actually feeling all that hungry because of how busy I had been, but I could feel my body getting weak. A woman's voice I didn't recognize said something in my mind: "Come back, Tetsuya."

Somehow I knew she was referring to where I had met with Tenkou before. I closed my eyes and was back. In front of me was the woman who spoke, and a young man. They both had pale hair and were clad in dark clothes like my own, and also had little crowns laced around their foreheads. "I get it. You both must be Tenkou's chosen kings too, huh?"

"Yes," they smirked to each other, maybe in some secret code I couldn't understand. I thought maybe they were siblings and had that secret way of communicating. I don't have any siblings so I don't know, but I have seen Miaka and Keisuke do that sometimes, just by saying a word or two the other would completely understand. They looked back to me and the boy spoke. "I'm Renhou, and this is Miisu. We also serve Tenkou."

"I see," I said. "Are you both looking for the Suzaku warriors' jewels, too?"

"It's not our primary focus."

"Oh." Of course Tenkou had to have other jobs than just what I was doing. That must have meant that I was one of the ones Tenkou most trusted to interact with the Suzaku warriors. Having been a big fan had it's perks.

Miisu removed her fingers from the unusual pendant she had been fingering. "Got away," she whispered to Renhou, but then they looked back up to me. "You must be exhausted. Feel free to get some food and rest." She motioned to a table set with some dumplings.

They seemed like nice people, but not all that friendly. They left, and I made myself comfortable. This place seemed like a world inside of a dream, what with the towers leading to no where and the random discolored patches of sky. I found it pretty easy to fall asleep.

* * *

I waited. The guys up there were obviously bandits, but they were taking their time getting me out of there. I hoped they weren't planning to starve me, but I figured if they were going to get me out of there I'd have a chance to see Tasuki soon. No use getting worked up.

My cell phone went off again. This time it was Taka.

"Hey! Did Miaka ask you to lock things up?"

"You're in the book!"

He was reading it! We- Miaka, Tetsuya, Yui and I- had told him about it before and about how he was the celestial warrior Tamahome and how Miaka was the priestess. He had read parts of it, but didn't spend all that much time at the club because he was usually on dates with Miaka. "How did you know to start reading it?"

"I saw Tetsuya's sunglasses left where it was open, and there was a weird light coming from the pages. Then I saw 'the brother of the priestess' written there, and started reading. You were just attacked by a demon, right?"

"Probably a few pages ago, but yes."

"There's also something here about you mentioning Tetsuya," I could hear him flip a page, "is he there, too?"

Taka would probably have to be informed now. "Listen, Taka, this is pretty important, for your sake. You know how you have no memories of being Tamahome?"

"Yes?"

"They--" I stopped. The bandits came back, and an especially loud one stood over the edge and laughed.

"Is this the new sucker?"

I looked up, and even though it was dark, I could tell he had bright hair and something glinted from his mouth. "I have to go," I said back into the phone. "Do me a favor and go reread from where I came in, okay? Call me when you catch up. Bye."


	8. First sighting

**Author Fangirling: **Almost didn't think I'd get to put up this chapter this week. x_x; Keisuke-Tetsuya-Keisuke yet again. Wow, Keisuke is keeping busier than I am.

* * *

"Tasuki!"

"I see I'm still famous," he tipped his head back to smile. "Not gonna help ya though, pal."

"But I need your help--" That probably sounded stupid in this circumstance, as if I needed his help getting out of his trap. I did, but that was besides the point.

"Bribe me first."

"It's about Tamahome!"

I could see his eyes get wider as he got more curious. "Now you're talkin'. Go on."

"He's reincarnated in my world, and you have his memories. You should have a jewel somewhere."

"Your world? And I got plenty of jewels. You're not gettin' any of 'em."

"Quit playing dumb, you probably know exactly which one I'm talking about if you've seen it." Not that I knew that, a bluff just sounded appropriate right now if he had it anyway. I hadn't actually seen any of these jewels yet, but I hoped it was recognizable. Lucky for me, the necklace was reacting, so I pulled it out from under my shirt to show him. "I know you have it! Taiitsukun gave me this necklace to help find it!"

"Pretty snazzy necklace ya' got there," he crouched down and held his chin in his palms, probably humoring me with his interest. "Taiitsukun's not the type to give goodies t' just anybody, though. Where'd ya find it? We'll probably have to hit up the place!"

He didn't believe me. "Come on, help me out here. I'm Miaka's brother!"

"Brother?"

"Yes. You burned the hair I used to talk with her once, remember?"

"Nope."

"On the boat! Don't you---" no, why was I bringing up such a silly thing like that? "When you came to our world to fight Nakago, I was the one who called you and Chichiri there!"

"Now yer changin' yer story."

"They're both true! Now do you want to help Tamahome or not?"

Instead of humoring me, he looked a bit more defensive now. "Tama disappeared."

"He went to our world. His love helped him to reincarnate there to be with Miaka. They're both together there right now, but Tenkou is trying to take away his memories. If that happens, then he _will _disappear!"

"Memories, huh? And how am I supposed t' have 'em?"

"There are seven jewels which contain his memories, one for each of the warriors to watch over."

"Oh. Okay," he returned to a more chipper tone, "Thanks for letting me know. Bye!"

"Hey!" I yelled. Did he believe me, but even so just leave me here? "You're just as bad as Hotohori!"

"Hey!" he peered back over the edge. "Don't bad-mouth His Highness! I was just grabbing some rope, geez."

The rope came falling down. It had been a while since I did any rope climbing in school, but I got used to it again pretty quick. I got up over the edge and caught my breath, then looked back up at Tasuki. He had his arms folded and looked at me critically. "You sure you're Miaka's brother?"

"Yes! What were you expecting?"

"You're pretty beat up there, aren't ya?" he motioned to his chin to mirror my own. The flesh was still raw from my acquaintance with the road earlier.

"Nyan-Nyan!" I jumped as I thought back to it, and then looked back over my shoulder.

"Hold on, what happened?" he furrowed his eyebrows.

"She was fighting off an attacker earlier and told me to run for it. Do you think she'll be alright?"

"I'm not even sure what Nyan-Nyan are made out of, don't ask me what happens t' 'em," he shrugged, then gave me a suspecting glance as he fingered his tessen. "Anyway… I'm still not sure what to make of this, or how you know all of this. Why isn't Miaka here if there's a problem?"

"I don't want to get her involved again."

"If it's about Tamahome, there's no more important person to involve," growled he.

"And I'll bet you're not going to let go of that jewel until you're convinced I'm on your side," I sunk a bit, but still kept a firm tone and eye contact. This would be so much easier if he just remembered talking to me that one time. That had been a busy day for everyone, I guess I can forgive him for forgetting that one detail.

"Heh. You're a smart one, aren't ya?"

"Keisuke, I need to speak with you about the jewel."

"Oh, Hotohori. I didn't expect to see you so soon," I turned to the ghost who just invited himself into the conversation as if it was a normal occurrence. Tasuki's nerves weren't quite as dulled, and he yelped and barely caught himself before falling backwards into the hole he had just pulled me out of.

"Y-Y-Your Highness! When did-- why are you here?! You're dead!"

"Ah, Tasuki," he smiled, "I'm glad you can see my spiritual form. You seem to be in good health."

"Can everyone see you?"

"No," he looked back down at himself, "it seems that only those with celestial abilities are able to see or hear me. Or," he looked back over to me, "others with a special purpose for being here."

"Then you've met," he looked back at me too, then whispered to Hotohori, "then you've already heard all this stuff about Tamahome?" Tasuki wasn't very good at whispering if I could still hear him clearly.

"I believe he's trust worthy, and that there is a significant threat," he replied with the utmost seriousness. "The unexplainable incident at the library implies such."

"You said something about your jewel," I joined back in, "what did you find out?"

"I have reason to believe, given a few things Houki said, that it might be with my son, inside of her."

"What!?" Tasuki and I both nearly fell backwards at the news. "What makes you say that?"

"She had a vision of a light blue stone enter her womb recently, and a certain warmness hasn't left her since."

"You sure she's not just hot all the time?"

"Do you mean to call my wife crazy, Tasuki?"

"That would explain why the necklace was reacting around her," I looked back down to it. It was still glowing, probably because Tasuki had his nearby. "How are we supposed to get it out, then? Wait until the kid is born? Even then, what if it's not just in the womb with him, but… I don't know how it'd be possible… but inside of him?"

"I do not think Tenkou would be willing to wait that long," replied Hotohori. "I wanted to make sure you were informed. Now that you've found Tasuki, I hope you won't mind if I continue to stay by her side."

"No, no, of course! You better take care of her," I said, though I had no idea what was supposed to happen next with if that was the case.

"Please come back to the palace so we can speak further," he excused himself, then disappeared.

Tasuki watched a little wistfully a moment, but got his tough-guy look back right away. "Well, I guess that settles it. I'm taking another vacation while we get this sorted out. Tamahome better thank me for this."

"Well… assuming he'll remember you."

"He doesn't remember me!?"

"I already told you, he has no memories of this world."

We stopped back by the bandit hide out to grab some food and for him to explain to Kouji what was going on, and we left shortly after that (good thing, too, because I didn't know how well I could stand the smell of all those guys in one building. There's a reason I stayed at home instead to have my mom do my cleaning instead of trying to live on my own with my own laundry. Even I've got my limits for what I can stand. Although compared to the smell of Miaka's cooking…).

Tasuki asked some other questions about how Tamahome and Miaka were doing, so I told him, as well as about how Tamahome was Taka now, a normal guy in our world.

And then a random demon attacked again. I love this world. (Tasuki didn't quite pick up on my sarcasm when I said that aloud).

* * *

I slept like a rock. Or at least, I thought I did, but I had no idea how long I had been asleep. Was it time to get up? It was still dark. Then again, this whole place was pretty dark except for those weird splotches of color. Maybe Miisu or Renhou would know what time it was.

Or would that even matter for finding some of the seishi? The dead ones probably don't need to sleep! Ha ha… no, it wasn't that funny, but I was laughing to myself anyway. Those two had to be around here somewhere. I could hear soft voices. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but they distinctly sounded like them.

I peered behind the pillar, and saw them sure enough. They were laying down half-way on top of each other, holding each other and pressing together. Miisu had no shirt on. That's all I noticed when I decided to stop looking. I would have yelped in surprise, but something else showed up behind me to hold my mouth shut. Except it wasn't hands… what was this around my face? Water? I couldn't think of what else it would have felt like.

I looked behind me and saw another guy there, another one of us with a crown around his head. "Don't go around interrupting people while they're doing that."

"Sorry, I was just surprised," I said when the water left my mouth. "I thought they were siblings."

"They are."

The color drained from my face. I hadn't just walked in on a couple of lovers, but I had just witnessed an act of incest! I had nothing to say but my lips bubbled around in unintelligible sounds while I couldn't think of anything. The other guy spoke instead. "It'd be better not to cast judgments on those Tenkou chose to be the Four Kings of Earth. You're one of them, too."

"Four Kings… of Earth? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Not what it sounds like."

"Were you the one making the water move?" I asked. "Then shouldn't you be a King of Water?"

"I was given power over drought and storm. Our powers have very little to do with the titles, actually."

"So we have different powers like that?" I looked down to my hands. "What's mine? Teleportation?"

"That's hardly important if the rest of us have those abilities as well. You're probably fine if you don't have any specific powers."

"What, am I not special enough?" I grumbled, but it was no use getting angry. This guy was supposed to be a comrade, so I extended my hand and smiled. "Anyway, my name's Tetsuya. How about you?"

"Hmph," he snubbed my hand by turning away with his nose in the air.

"…Can't I at least get your name?"

"I am called Hikou."

* * *

"Rekka Shinen!"

That tessen must have been handy. All I could do was run, but the monster kept coming after me anyway, despite Tasuki's attacks and trying to provoke it. It was like it didn't care about anything but getting rid of me. What did these demons have against me anyway?

"Over here! Hey!" Tasuki yelled at the demon who was ignoring its burnt appendages (for lack of a better work to describe them). "Dammit, leave the guy alone and face me like a man! Sorry, Keisuke, looks like it just likes easy prey."

Easy prey, huh? Is that all I was?

Come to think of it (or at least as well as I could think while I was running for my life), the demon earlier didn't seem very interested in Nyan-Nyan either. My presence in this world hadn't gone unnoticed, had it? "I get it!" I yelled to Tasuki, "Tenkou sent them after me!"

"…so he doesn't care about us Suzaku warriors, huh?" he looked annoyed. As if to prove him wrong, the demon abruptly turned back and swung at him, but Tasuki was just barely able to jump out of the way. The demon got close enough to rip his shirt and braise his skin, but also at that time one of his possessions fell out. Tasuki's eye grew wide as he noticed it flying out of reach. "Not that!"

A jewel of memory. We both reached for it, but of course neither of us where close enough, and the demon was even closer to where it could snatch it out of mid-air. It lifted an appendage towards it, and it let out a rippled light, then disappeared.

It was gone. The demon… Tenkou must have destroyed it! Or done something else to it! We were too late! Why didn't Tasuki just fork it over earlier? Said warrior gritted his fangs at the demon, yelled an obscenity at the thing and then charged with a larger flame than he had been using earlier. "That was Tamahome's!"

And then my phone started ringing. I grumbled and answered it quickly. "Taka? This is not a good time."

"I remember!"

…what?

"I remember Tasuki!" he said with haste. "Just now when I caught up to where you guys were, when the book mentioned the jewel, it was like it all came back to me."

"Then the demon didn't get it after all. That was you!"

"It was so sudden. I saw him, and I saw memories of Miaka which I didn't have before. It's… can I talk to him?"

"Not at the moment, Tasuki's a little occupied. You should know that if you're still reading," I looked back at the action, but it seemed like Tasuki was about done finishing the demon off anyway. "Anyway, that's good if we can get your memories back to you this way. Just keep reading, got it?"

"Yeah. Watch out behind you!"

"What?" I turned around, and barely had enough time to duck before Tasuki's flames headed my way. I accidentally ended the call. Taka must have read something to warn me before it hit. The demon had disappeared, and Tasuki still panted as he held the tessen.

"Dammit," he muttered.

"It's alright," I answered. "Just as soon as I saw it, Taka got his memories back from the jewel. The demon never touched it!"

"Really? You're sure?" he blinked. "What, are you like his medium in this world or what?"

I hadn't thought of that. I guess if I'm the main character for the time being, Taka and I might be able to share a connection like Yui had with Miaka when she first came here. "Yeah, something like that. Do you smell something burning?"

"Uh… it's your hair."

"Gyaaahh!!"

Looks like Taka didn't warn me quite fast enough.


	9. Brothers

**Author Fangirling: **This isn't my favorite chapter, it has some of my favorite lines. Do remember that I expect the readers to be familiar with the OVAs, so instead of completely rewriting some of what I found to be the best original scenes, I'm just depending on you to either substitute your own memory of a cherished scene or to say 'yeah yeah yeah, I know, get on with the story'. Such is the freedom allowed with fanfiction.

* * *

We went back to the palace to meet up with Hotohori like was agreed earlier, but while the officials recognized us, we didn't tell them that we were there to see his majesty because they'd all want to try again to get an audience with his ghost. They did tell us more about the library incident, and that the official who died was already pretty old to begin with and must have had a heart attack, but they had no way of knowing. What they still could not explain was the force emitted from that spot which blew all the papers around and stuff.

I hadn't gotten to put much more thought into it, but it seemed likely that it happened because of Tetsuya. Not that I think he'd be willing to kill the old man, but he wasn't supposed to be there. Or rather, neither of us are supposed to be here at all, but only are because of Tenkou and Taiitsukun's powers. There probably was some kind of celestial interference, especially because I knew one of Tamahome's memory jewels had been there.

As I thought that, I looked back down to the necklace. There was a faint glow, probably because Houki was somewhere in the building, but it wasn't as strong as when I was near her. It worked before when I saw Tasuki's jewel that Taka, while he was reading, could get it. But if I have to see Hotohori's jewel, that could be a problem.

"Any success in locating the others?" Hotohori's ghost appeared and asked, motioning with his eyes towards the necklace. I shook my head, but Tasuki answered that his had already been taken care of.

"I'm sorry, what was that, Lord Tasuki?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all! I wasn't talkin' t' nobody!" he swung back around to face the officials.

Hotohori did not look amused. "Of course I'm not a 'Nobody'."

"You seem to have had a rough journey," the prime minister noticed the various scrapes (and in my case, burns) we had. "If you're going to stay here for a short time to investigate, please indulge in the spring outside."

A hot spring sounded great at that point. A whole spa trip would have sounded even better. Anyway, Tasuki and I took off our clothes, got out there, and it felt great, and Hotohori joined us out there, too. Err, I hope Taka didn't read that, that sounded wrong. Let me rephrase: Tasuki and I sat in the bath and Hotohori stayed out there to talk with us so we could explain how we had been attacked before by the two demons.

"I see," he replied. "I did mean to ask you ask you about a few of those injuries. Has something happened to Nyan-Nyan so she wasn't able to heal you?"

"The last I saw, she was fighting the first demon so I could get away," I thumbed my chin and felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, "I hope she's alright. Tasuki was able to take care of the second one pretty well, even at my expense," I then thumbed my singed hair.

"Sorry, geez."

"Ah ha," came a woman's voice. "I see them."

A woman!? Why was she peeping at us in the bath? Not that I was embarrassed, but... where was she, anyway? "Hey!" I shouted, but the next thing I knew, my left arm was getting lifted back up in to the air, and then there was a woman looking at my armpit. "What in the--"

"Nuriko!"

...okay, so it wasn't a woman. Wasn't even a living person, so that's why I didn't notice when she- I mean he- came in. My arm wasn't even held up by his hand, but by the bracelet he was wearing. He smiled back up at me. "Nice to meet you. You must be Keisuke."

"Yeah," I blinked back as he let my arm come back down. "Did Taiitsukun tell you about me?"

"No, Miaka did. You're her brother." Finally, somebody believed me, and I didn't even have to tell him! Hotohori and Tasuki both looked wide-eyed at him, as if to ask how he was so sure. "She told me one time while we were killing time in Touran that you had two little moles on your left ribs under your shoulder."

"Oh," I peeked back down at them. "More like freckles, it you ask me." I never even knew that Miaka noticed those things. I guess talking about Kourin that day- if I remember correctly- got them on the topic of siblings and what they looked like. "Ha ha, I guess this marks me like a Suzaku warrior marking or something. How did you know to look for it, though?"

"I saw your clothes and thought they looked like something from Miaka's world, but I couldn't think of who else from that world might have had any connection to this place, much less be able to see His Highness! When I happened to see the moles, though, I was sure."

Said emperor looked very sheepish and bowed his head, while Tasuki stared blankly for a moment and then announced, "Oh. I remember now. We did talk once, didn't we? I thought your voice was familiar."

"I'm very sorry I did not believe you earlier. I hope you will not tell Miaka any of that."

Well, it was good to have that out of the way. Nuriko had some other insight (someone like him would have been so much more helpful to meet at the beginning of this whole mess). "You've got something to do with Tamahome, don't you? I think I have something that belongs to him."

* * *

"Hikou, huh? What does Tenkou have you doing?"

"I already told you, I have powers over flood and drought."

"Yeah, but what does he have you do?"

"You really don't know anything, do you?"

"No, I'm just some guy who researches these things for fun. I had never actually even heard of Tenkou until yesterday... or earlier today. What time is it?"

"It would be 'yesterday'," he evaded the question.

"So... time's irrelevant, huh?"

"To people who aren't supposed to be existing in this world, no."

"Ah, so I'm the only one whose not allowed to know?"

"You're the only one who is not originally from this world is all. The rest of us are only allowed to manifest due to Tenkou's powers."

This was starting to sound weird. "Manifest?"

"We're dead."

Yep, it was definitely weird by now, but I had heard of weirder things. I gulped as I let that sink in, that these people had already experienced death. Heck, even most of the Suzaku warriors had experienced death. It made me feel very naive at that moment. How could I really afford to help these people? What did a college student like me, who always had a pretty comfortable life, do? Even compared to Yui, I'm...

No, Tenkou was right. I did have the experience of reading the Universe of the Four Gods, so I have my ties to this place. And I'm here because I know these warriors in a kind of way they'll never understand. Until they reincarnate, anyway, and we can explain to them there.

Hikou seemed to feel a little more talkative now. "We were all murdered because we were hated."

"Uh..." I side glanced back towards where I had seen the siblings in their act together. "...well, that's..." I mean, I know what those two are doing is wrong, but who am I to judge? And the people who murdered them, who were they to judge? So then, I had to wonder, what did Hikou do? Something with his mother?

"It was his girlfriend."

I really hope he didn't see the thought that crossed my mind before. I didn't mean it, really!

"The man who I thought was my friend killed me because I was in love with his girlfriend."

"That's," I bobbed my mouth open and shut for a moment, not finding any good response. "That's pretty harsh. I mean, if my best friend were in love with Yui, I'd tell him to back off... and I might hit him, but I wouldn't kill him."

"Hmph."

"So... what do Miisu and Renhou do?"

"You saw what they do."

"I don't mean that! What kind of powers do they have?"

"Demonic ones."

"Very descriptive, aren't we?"

"Hmph."

"Well... uh... I think since time doesn't matter and all, I'll just go out and find another one of those memory jewels now. See you later."

Tenkou's got some weird taste in who he chooses for these kings... Kings of Earth, is that what Hikou called them? I looked back down to my palm. All I had wanted earlier was to get the old man not to hold onto the bag, and to get Chiriko to let go, and it worked. What was it, wind power? No...? Gravity? No. Just some kind of force.

Demonic force.

Demonic powers? Me? Never.

Whatever these powers were, I was not too concerned. All that mattered was that they were easy to use and were helpful on my mission. Mission… who was I to look for next?

* * *

"Okay, Taka, you better still be following all this!" I said aloud, though the others didn't get it, and then expectantly waited for Nuriko to hand over the jewel. Nothing happened. "Well?"

"I don't have it."

That was right. He was dead and couldn't carry anything. "Where is it, then? And if you say Hokkan, I'm gonna cry."

"Oh no," he laughed, then paused. "Now that you mention it, though, I did see a strange person there recently. I didn't recognize him, but he could see me."

"A spirit medium of some kind, perhaps?" asked Hotohori.

"No, it had to be Tetsuya!" Tenkou must have given him the ability to see the ghosts of the warriors if I had it, too! "Was he about this tall?"

"Um… perhaps?" he thought back, a little embarrassed probably to not have paid more attention. "What else can you tell me to jog my memory?"

"He would have been wearing… no, those got left behind," I thought back to his sunglasses. Come to think of it, I should be embarrassed for not having paid more attention. I don't know how to describe him without the sunglasses on. If he could have already been to Hokkan and to Konan in this short of time, I'd have no way of knowing where he could be right now! If only there was some way for me to contact him. Too bad we don't still wear school uniforms to pull a stunt like Miaka and Yui. Something is bugging me, like I should have thought of something obvious by now.

Anyway, we followed Nuriko to his house, where he introduced us to his brother, Rokou--of course, we'd have to supply our own introductions to him because he couldn't see Nuriko (Hotohori stayed behind to watch over Houki).

"Hi, uh… you must be Rokou."

"Yes," he said while giving us suspicious looks and seemingly using the door as a shield. "May I help you?"

"Uh, yes. I understand you're the celestial warrior Nuriko's older brother."

"Yes, I am Ryuuen's brother."

At first I thought I had heard him wrong. I had said Nuriko, hadn't I? It took me a moment to remember that they had their own names apart from the celestial names. That's something Tetsuya would have recognized in an instant, but he also knows his Suzaku warrior trivia backwards and forwards. "Well, uh, I can sympathize! I'm the Priestess of Suzaku's brother."

"I didn't know Suzaku had a brother, and you sure as hell don't look like a priestess," added Tasuki, so I turned to take a swing at him.

"Would you quit fooling around and get in there?" Nuriko complained. "You just have to get to that glass ball over there. Tamahome's memory jewel is inside."

"As I understand, though, the Priestess of Suzaku survived," replied Rokou. "And you say you can sympathize?"

"I understand the sacrifice he made and how important it was. It was almost like being there myself, but this guy sure was."

"Yep. I'm Suzaku warrior Tasuki, one of Nuriko's comrades."

"I see," he frowned. Apparently, he didn't like the idea of his brother hanging out with someone with fangs and who smelled like he hadn't bathed in weeks. Of course, he had just recently been in the bath at the palace, it was just that his clothes still stank like all the men on Mt. Reikaku. "And why are you here?"

"T' get something Nuriko left behi--"

"To pray for his soul!" I put a hand in front of Tasuki's mouth, but on second thought I wondered what might have happened if he bit it. Fortunately he didn't have quite that temper. Cautious though he was, Rokou let us in to pray for Nuriko's soul and light some incense. Of course, it felt weird seeing this soul as we prayed for him.

"Could you just get on with it and get the jewel?" he folded his arms and blushed, probably embarrassed. At least he wasn't fooling around to try to break the air or something.

"Well, do you want the attention or not?" Tasuki snapped back in a hushed whisper.

"I like attention," he sassed back, "but this is isn't exactly what I'd like right now. I'd like you both to hurry up and help Tamahome."

"What, ya don't like being home?"

"Not if Rokou's acting like that!"

"Is there a problem?" the older brother turned around at Tasuki's whispering. He shook his head no, and we continued 'praying'. This was getting us nowhere, as he'd probably kick us out as soon as the incense was all burned up. I searched the altar with my eyes. Before, when I had just seen the jewel, Taka was able to get it. I spotted the crystal, and it looked like something was inside, but I couldn't distinguish it. Time to lay on my charm and see how I could get my eyes on it a little better.

"So, did that item on the altar belong to Nuriko? It sure is… shiny."

"It did belong to him," he replied, matter-of-factly. "It was a very important treasure to him."

"Oh. Could I see it a little closer?"

"Please don't. It's very fragile."

"I don't mean to touch it, I'd just like to see it."

"I don't see how it's any of your business here."

Well, so much for that plan of attack. I whispered to Nuriko, "now what do you suggest?"

"Just grab the thing."

"Wouldn't he get upset?"

"He'll have to get over it," he rolled his eyes. And with that, his bracelets glowed out into armlets, and he lifted up the glass ball in between them carefully.

Rokou was quick to notice the floating ball and disembodied armlets, and squirmed back on the floor as he yelled in surprise. "Demons! Demons are trying to take Ryuuen's crystal ball! You!" he swung back around and lifted an accusing finger, "that's all you came here for!"

"Uh, listen, this is all just a mistake! I don't know what's going on!"

"That necklace of yours just started glowing! You're using it to control the demons!"

"No, really I-"

"Keisuke, is he serious?" Tasuki asked, with a hint of aggravation. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder to the new visitor. "Cause those demons are followin' you everywhere."

What terrible timing.

So the demon attacked, everyone started yelling for whatever reason and trying to take cover, and at one point, Nuriko decided to drop the ball and go help Tasuki fight. Rokou, however, was a lot more daring than I thought and leapt across the room to catch the fly ball. I resisted the urge to yell 'you're out!', because it really did seem like a baseball play (ancient China style). Being so sprawled out against the ground made him vulnerable, though, so the demon made a quick attack at him, but Nuriko caught it just in time, and then Rokou started acting like he could see Nuriko after all, and Tasuki finished the demon off, and the two brothers had a moment of some kind. Just to make a long story short, it got to the point where Rokou was just about to hand the crystal ball over to me after talking with Nuriko, but before it even got into my hand, it emitted a light like the one Tasuki's jewel did, and then disappeared. Mission accomplished, and Rokou got to keep the ball after all.

A quick phone call to Taka while they weren't looking made me able to confirm he got the memories successfully (although this is making it sound more like a bank transaction now). "I got them… I remember Nuriko. The things he's said to me… his sacrifice…"

"Don't break down on me yet, Taka, there's a lot more where that came from. And if you don't get them…"

"I know, I'll disappear. Don't worry, I'm still reading. Can I… can I at least talk to them? My friends?"

"Wouldn't a cell phone really get them all worked up? And besides, then they'd ask to talk to Miaka, and if she were to find out about all this…"

"No. I don't want her to worry."

When we said good-bye, I said I had to stay busy gathering the jewels. But if Hotohori's jewel was with the prince inside of Houki's womb, hurrying really wasn't going to do any good.

It's not as if I meant for Taka not to talk with his old friends. It was just… growing up in our world made him a little bit different now. Calmer, somehow. After all, he wasn't raised in a place where it was okay to beat people up, and he didn't have to do that kind of stuff to get money. He was now in a world of paperwork, not paper, a world with no place for Suzaku or celestial powers. Funny how I sound all detached saying all of this; it's my world, too. I have no business editing the relationship between Taka and his celestial brothers. I've read it all, sure, but how well could I really understand how deep their friendship was? I held my phone a bit tighter and thought that maybe I should call him back.

Friends…

No! Then I got a much better, more useful idea! I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier!


	10. His mission

**Author Fangirling: **Whoa, I almost forget to update today! But where I am, it's still Saturday for another hour, so I'm okay. This chapter is ALL TETSUYA.

* * *

So there I was, wandering around Konan trying to get some ideas, and it hit me. Mitsukake, right before he died (or during, I should say) saved a baby girl with the same name as his late girlfriend, Shouka. He always seemed a sentimental character to me, especially if he was that moved by just hearing the name. Then again, if the baby was named something else, he'd probably still have done that--to give up his life to not only save that baby, but everyone in the area, including the enemy soldiers, and heck, those who had died! One injured man with only his will power and life force brought a bunch of people back from the dead and restored everyone's health! On top of that, Suzaku was sealed at the time, so he didn't even have celestial aid at that time to accomplish something like that. Either that, or he might have been thinking 'to heck with this seal, I'm breakin' out the big guns anyway' and… ah, well, that's not very like Mitsukake to word it like that.

I'm just being a fanboy now, but I do have a lot of respect for the guy. At least readers like me can go back and reread whatever I need to in order to move past it.

Anyway, my theory is that he got that sudden burst of power because of all the emotions that baby's name brought up. Maybe he thought she was the reincarnation of her or something. So this brings me all back to my point: I think he's with that little girl wherever she is. So all I have to do is focus on where that girl would be. Given the geography of where she was brought to him from a nearby village, it shouldn't be too hard…

And then my phone rang. Here, in Konan, my phone is ringing! What is wrong with this picture? A lot, that's what! First off, where is it getting service from? The ID said it was Keisuke, but if he didn't already know where I was, I wasn't sure if I'd get all giddy and start telling him everything, or see if it'd be simpler to keep things to myself. Maybe it was best, I decided, just to see what he said first. "Hello?"

"I know what you're thinking, and I think it's because the book is in a service area."

Well, that answered a few things. "Are you reading it? Does the book have my name in it?"

"Actually, the book isn't following you, it's following me."

I felt myself go a little pale. "You're here, too? In the Universe of the Four Gods?"

"Yes, but I need to talk to you about what's going on!"

"Oh. I wasn't enough, huh? Did Tenkou call you here, too?" Not that I was jealous or mad, just a little disappointed.

"No, Taiitsukun did, to get you out!"

"What?"

"You were pulled in here by Tenkou, but you aren't supposed to be here. I don't know what he told you, but it's all false. Tenkou's the bad guy here--"

"Who said that? The book?"

"No, Taiitsukun did."

"And you'll believe her? Who does she have working for her, and for what?"

"Uh… Nyan-Nyan… and you know who she is, don't go bad-mouthing her authority! What has Tenkou done to you?"

"Tenkou, for your information, doesn't only have me employed, and he's got bigger plans than just making sure gods get summoned," I replied, though I didn't know much about my boss in the first place. "And I'm here to save the Suzaku warriors."

"What kind of crap is that!? Save them from what?"

"Their own memories."

"What? You mean the jewels! He's using you to get them, isn't he? Listen, those are Taka's… Tamahome's memories!"

I snorted. "Yeah? Then why does everyone else have them?"

"Uh… don't ask me. That's just how things work. You have to believe me on this!"

I could hear someone on his end of the line asking what who he was talking to and with what. He had an accent… that probably meant he had run into Tasuki by now. "So you've already got one of them?"

"Huh?"

"The jewels."

"I already have… I shouldn't be telling you this if you're working with Tenkou. You're getting played! He's just using you to gain power from the jewels. You're just a tool, you don't even have any powers here!"

_You want a bet? _I wanted to reply, but thought better of it. The less he knew the better. "Listen, Keisuke, you better get out of here. This isn't your place, you've never been as into all this as I have. That's why it's my job to save them because I know them."

"Not my place? This isn't your place either! My job is just to get you out! Heck, you wouldn't even have known about all this in the first place if it weren't for me. And don't go thinking that I don't care anything about this world just because I have a better hold on reality than you do, or even than Miaka does. And don't you dare drag her into this, or Yui!"

"Don't you go giving me warnings about how to take care of Yui! Besides, now I can definitely protect her if anything comes up with this book again, calling for her… and Miaka," I smiled a bit, "You'll see. This'll be best for her, just like it was for her to meet Taka."

"What are you talking about, Tetsuya? Do not bring Miaka into this! Do you hear me?"

"Go home, Keisuke. I'll be there as soon as I'm done. I won't be gone long at all, you'll see. And then you'll see why I'm here."

"I know why you're here, because Tenkou's evil and you're a pawn!"

"No. I'm a king." And with that, I hung up. It wasn't worth explaining to him. But this was going to be more problematic if he had already met Tasuki, and who knows who else. It doesn't surprise me that Taiitsukun is irritated that I'm bending the rules, since she was always about rules of this world and didn't step in anywhere she could have helped. She certainly didn't seem to care much about helping Yui ir anything.

"That's unusual, no da."

"Gah!!" I jumped. It was the most unusual voice attached to the most unusual face I had ever seen.

"Arguing with yourself is a pretty sad sight, no da."

This speech pattern… I knew it.

"I hate to suggest it, but there's probably a lot of places in the next town which could help a guy like you out. Well then, I'll be off to let you carry on in privacy. Bye na no da." He started sinking into a hole under his hat, but I was already expecting it and snatched it before it hit the ground, lifting it back up to reveal more of him. "Hey! If you want to steal my hat, you could just ask. I have extras, no da."

"Chichiri!"

Even with his mask on he looked surprised when I said that. His tone turned more serious, and he asked, "yes?"

"I've been looking for you," I smiled, so fortunate to have just had another warrior sneak up on me. I didn't actually know if I was supposed to help the living warriors, too, but it couldn't hurt. "Hi, I'm Tetsuya. A friend of the priestesses."

He removed the mask silently, then looked back up with a worried expression, and the blatant scar which made my stomach turn. "Has something happened to Miaka?"

"No, she's just fine," I smiled. "But have you talked to any of you deceased friends in a while? I was actually on my way to go see Mitsukake if you'd like to go with me."

"Mitsukake?" his expression softened, as if heartbroken. That's right, I was the reader for that scene, but Chichiri was the one who witnessed his final, shining moment. "How is he?"

"Besides dead?" I smiled, but thought better of the comment afterward. "I don't know. Let's go find out."

"I haven't seen him since Suzaku was summoned," he put the mask back on, maybe to look his best for another meeting. Tamaneko-- Mitsukake's cat Miaka had named-- was pawing at his ankles, probably recognizing the name of his master.

"You want to see him too, huh?" Scooping up the cat and putting a hand on Chichiri's shoulder, I concentrated on the area where I thought the baby might have come from. There was that whirring sound again, and then solid ground. Nothing seemed recognizable to either of us right away, but maybe because of these powers, I could distinctly hear a woman's voice saying 'careful, Shouka.' I motioned with my head to the direction it came from. "This way." Chichiri nodded and followed, not questioning yet who I was.

Come to think of it, I wasn't all that sure Mitsukake was there, just that the jewel would be. I hoped it wouldn't let Chichiri down, but I kept listening to the voice and following it. "It's like she has no fear of falling over, even on a hard surface. She's just fast to learn to sit up, I suppose."

Soon we stopped at a house. I hadn't actually thought of what we'd do to get Chichiri inside. No one could see me before so it was no problem. Maybe I could entice the baby to come out and give me to jewel if she had it… except that she couldn't walk, much less sit up well. "Just a minute," I said, then wished myself inside to get a better look around. She was a decently cute baby, I guess, even for being on the slim side. I wouldn't have wanted to cuddle her or anything because she was covered in drool all the way down to her toes, having been gnawing on a round object just barely too big for her mouth. It didn't just shine with her drool, though, but with something more special. There was something really funny about this, seeing Mitsukake's precious memories being drenched in saliva. Maybe if I could just grab for it…

"She'll scream if you take it, just a warning."

I must have been blind to have not seen the ghost holding the baby up.

"Mitsukake!"

"You know me?" he smiled.

"Being a national hero has a way of making you pretty well known," I replied with a wide smile. This was Mitsukake, I was talking to Mitsukake! I really must have been a big fan boy to have been so giddy with each new warrior I met. And once I succeeded in doing something very close to taking candy from a baby, I'd be able to see a whole lot more of him in my own world. "Oh. There's someone else here who knows you," I motioned to the window.

Mitsukake cranked his neck curiously. "Tama! …Chichiri." Setting the baby down on her back, he walked out the wall to go greet him, so I didn't see their expressions initially as they greeted each other. I can imagine how happy they were. I might think I have a connection to them having read the book, but I'll never really be able to understand the connection they have. Maybe just because I wanted to see it, it was like the door hollowed out so I could see through it like Superman. They looked teary-eyed, and Tama was trying to paw at him, except that his paw kept going through. Chichiri had taken off his mask again, and it looked like they were trying to catch up.

This was perfect. While Mitsukake wasn't looking, I could grab the jewel. It wasn't hard, but I was surprised by her grip, and more so by just how loud she screamed; it didn't look like that big a sound could come out of that small a body! Alerted, Mitsukake swung around and yelled her name, and then switched his focus to me as I stepped out. Little did I expect the angry look on his face either, as I had never pictured it on him.

"Don't touch that," ordered he.

"Your jewel," murmured Chichiri when he saw it. Apparently, he had been pulling his own out to show Mitsukake.

"So you do have one, too," I smiled, "and the fact that you have it makes it even easier for me to do my job. This could be a heck of a lot easier if you just want to hand it over, no harm done to any of us."

"It was your plan all along to take the jewels?" the monk sneered. "You have something to do with Tamahome's disappearance too, don't you?"

"What? No, not directly, but I do know what happened to him. And don't worry, you'll be joining him soon."

They flared up more at that. It must have sounded like something terrible happened to him. I wasn't really looking for a fight, but it was looking more and more likely. I didn't want that. First, because I really like these guys, and second, because I'd be up against a couple of celestial warriors.

Then again, I also had powers. It'd probably be okay, and it'd be fine as long as I had Mitsukake's jewel to come back and get Chichiri's later. Then again, he'd probably take steps to prevent that if I gave him any time.

"I don't know what you're trying to do, but you need to return that right away. It's in my charge to take care of," the doctor said. I didn't want him throwing holy water in my face and trying to snatch it or anything, so instead I let it disappear, directly to wherever Tenkou was. It's nice that these powers didn't need to come with instructions. The warriors looked shocked, and Chichiri quickly stuffed his jewel back in his belongings.

"I don't want this to be hard," I said, "for both our sakes. But for your sake most of all, Chichiri, please give it to me."

He pointed his staff at me instead. So much for avoiding a fight.

Unfortunately for Chichiri, he wasn't familiar with American football. Not that I had ever played much myself, but I had watched it on TV, and I had seen some sumo wrestling, so using those in combination I rammed at him to try and knock him over to make it easier to search his pockets. He didn't see it coming and was knocked over easily, but searching was another problem. Out of nowhere (seriously) he pulled out a ward of some kind and pressed it to my arm, and it flashed and caused some kind of burning sensation in my whole body unlike anything I had ever felt before. Aside from that, it felt immobilizing, so I recoiled had to struggle to pull it off. That gave him enough time to stand back up. Seeing that close range wasn't going to work if he had any more of those, I had to think of something else.

And thinking was all it took. Like that time with Chiriko in the library, some kind of force went out from me and sent Chichiri and Mitsukake both sailing to the ground (now that's a move that would have come in handy for American football, I thought, but I might have only been thinking something silly like that just to distract myself from any pain I might have caused them. Or Chichiri, anyway, seeing as Mitsukake was already dead).

He was planted to the ground, but struggling to sit up. That gave me plenty of time to mosey on over and find it easily. Two in one day, great! I had just rescued two warriors in one day. I felt like I needed to leave them with a word of good will: "Don't worry, you guys will be able to reincarnate soon."

"Except that one of them isn't dead yet."

"Renhou!" I spun around to see where his voice had come from.

"Being dead is a precondition to reincarnating," he pointed to Chichiri. It wasn't as if I didn't know who he was talking about. "Are you going to finish the job or not?"

Not! "I can't kill him. That's not what I do."

"Then you fall short of completing a mission."

"I was just sent to get the jewels, I'm not going to do anything to hurt them."

"It's funny you should say that… now… no da…" he was still struggling to sit up.

"Really, it's the most compassionate thing you can do, rather than letting him rot here without memories."

Maybe he had a point, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything like murdering Chichiri. I hoped this didn't mean I had to fight against someone who was supposed to be my comrade, but…

"If you won't, then I will," he raised a hand to make some kind of attack, and without thinking, I stood between him and Chichiri to stop that from happening. Little did I stop to think of what kind of consequences that would mean for me, but still I shouted not to hurt him, before just shouting in fear as some kind of dark red bolt was heading towards me. Instead of seeing my life flash before my eyes, there was instead a flash of water, and then the attack had disappeared. There was someone else standing in front of me now.

"If he won't do it, don't make him. This one should live a little longer."

It was Hikou. Good thing someone else on my side felt the same way.

"If you'd like, Tetsuya, you can leave the rest of this to me and just complete the rest of the mission you were given."

"Fine," I said, but looked back up at Renhou. I wasn't going to leave if he was still going to try to attack the warriors.

He 'hmphed' away from my glance. "Very well," he said, then disappeared in a flash. I gave Hikou my thanks, then disappeared to Tenkou's lair to give him Chichiri's jewel as well. It floated to his hand with Mitsukake's, and then before my eyes he made them disappear.

"Very good work," he said, "You certainly were a very fitting one for this task. I have no regrets about choosing you."

"As opposed to…?"

"There are others I could have chosen, of course."

"Like Keisuke?"

"Yes. But you know as well as I do that he does not give himself as much of a stake in this world and it's characters as you do."

"Yes… then why would he be here?"

"Only to look for you. His only interests are in those from his own world."

"Then you already knew he was here? Why haven't you done anything to send him back?"

"I prefer not to bother in Taiitsukun's matters. It was purely her decision to bring him here, as she doesn't like that you're here and doing this."

"Huh."

"She is not in favor of any further ties between these two worlds, including having the warriors reincarnate there."

"Yeah, but even without the warriors, we still have ties," I thought back to Yui and her scars- one in particular.

"It is that understanding that makes you different."

It was great to hear that, of course, that my fandom paid off. Still, the flattery was getting a little routine. "And when do I meet Nakago?"

"He'll come out eventually."

"Say," I offered, "why is it only the Suzaku warriors who have this opportunity? Do the Seiryuu warriors have a chance to do that, too?"

Tenkou paused, then laughed with a roar. "Would you really want people like that in your peaceful Japan?"

"Not most of them, anyway, but do they at least have a chance?"

"I do not believe their attachment to their priestess is strong enough for many of them to be able to take a new form in her world. The Suzaku warriors' relationship with their priestess, as you know, is something truly spectacular. Tamahome's, particularly," he looked contemplative, "such a strong emotion he had in order to have given up his own memories so easily and reconfigure there."

"Yes, but… what about Suboshi? He loved Yui enough to want to be with her, I know it. If he had any sort of chance, he'd do it."

He laughed again. I must have been a very entertaining little earthling. "Would you really be so welcome to his competition?"

"No, I… just kind of understand where he's coming from."

"Really. Then you can imagine having a twin brother to watch over for as long as he might live?"

"Then he's watching over Amiboshi? Then… maybe I can just talk to him and see what he'd prefer."

Teleportation powers were very handy. Off to Sairou I went.


	11. Realization

**Author Fangirling: **This probably my favorite chapter. As always, reviews are fondly read over and over.

* * *

So, Taka had Nuriko and Tasuki's jewels, and we knew where Hotohori's was, just not how to get to it. There was the one that disappeared from the library, which I'm pretty sure Tetsuya probably got his hands on. I get this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when I imagine Taka being without those memories, but it's fine as long as Tenkou doesn't get all of them, right? Taka just needs a few to let him still exist. That's no excuse just to stop here and drag Tetsuya home, though, because Houki and the prince's lives are in danger for as long as that jewel is there.

That accounted for four out the seven jewels. There were only six warriors in this world, though, so I was just now starting to wonder where the wild card seventh could be.

It aggravated me just how stupid Tetsuya was being. No wonder he likes Yui so much, he gets strung along just as bad as she does! And he thought he was so sure who the good guys and bad guys were. After we're done with this mess, I'm going to give him such a hard time for this.

There was a twinge of guilt when I thought that. As much of a jerk as Yui was to Miaka, Miaka never gave her any kind of grief over it. Miaka's just a nicer person that I am, I guess, and wouldn't even think of anything like that. Plus, those two are so close that not even an experience that big could come between them forever. Sometimes it's hard to tell who Miaka cares for most, whether it's Yui or Taka. I'm prone to say Taka, but she flip-flopped so much between Hotohori and Tamahome for a while that it was difficult to say if she was just hung up on a crush. Once she and Yui made a connection when they were little, it was like there was no other contention for that spot in her heart.

How does Miaka do that, anyway? Attract so many people to her that they can never quite give her up? I'll bet a lot of the other warriors would love to have Taka's opportunity, if only just to see her again.

I had a lot of time to think about this as we were waiting around the palace. Nuriko had left, saying that as a ghost he'd be to scout out the others and maybe Nyan-Nyan quicker than I could, and he had put Hotohori in charge of Houki's care. Hotohori didn't even have the chance to say he'd take that task, Nuriko just gave it to him. He was still pretty daring to think he could give the emperor orders, but maybe their one-sided romance and Suzaku-brotherhood gave him some leeway. Tasuki volunteered to go look around too, and Hotohori ordered me (as was more fitting for an emperor, to give orders rather than take them, I guess) to stay there should anything happen regarding the jewel, as Tasuki had told him how I was like Tamahome's medium in this world.

So… there was mostly a lot of sitting to do in Houki's room. She seemed much more lively than when I had first met her, and was sitting up and sharing a meal with me. "You must be very proud of your sister, the priestess."

"Yeah, yeah I am," I gave her a canned response. I really wasn't worth much more around here except for being related to the priestess. But hey, she was the national hero and legend, not me.

"Does your homeland share the same kind of stories about her?"

"Not really, we keep it pretty secret that she ever came. Just me and my friend know about it. Besides the Priestess of Seiryuu and Taka, anyway."

"…Taka?"

"Oh, that's what he's going by nowadays. It sounds more normal in our world than does Tamahome."

"I see. Names will be something to consider soon," she put a hand to her belly. "Taka…"

Behind her, Hotohori was shaking his head quickly. "Not Taka. Nothing against Tamahome, of course, but this is _my _son."

I resisted the urge to tell him that if he was able to look in and see that it was a boy, he should have been able to see where the jewel was, too. Still, because Houki couldn't hear or see him (although she said she was able to feel his presence), I thought I'd help him out a bit. "I don't know how much His Highness would like that name…"

"What would he suggest?"

"Boushin."

"Boushin," I repeated, noticing his quickness, "it seems like one he already planned out."

"Boushin," she grimaced, "It would have to grow on me."

"How could you not like it?" he shouted at her unhearing ears. "Boushin is a perfectly strong, appealing name for my child, the next emperor and leader of my people! Besides, they would choose an official name for him when he takes the throne anyway!"

"Look out!" I yelled and pointed to our new visitor. This was random demon number… what? Four? Maybe five? I can't get rid of these things.

It struck immediately towards us, and fortunately was a bad shot and only knocked over the table stacked with food that Houki and I had been sitting at. Hotohori's automatic response was to shield his wife, but because he had no physical form, he couldn't even catch her as she fell from the chair due to the force of the blow. As it drew back to launch it's whatever-it-was at us again, I jumped to her side and barked at him to leave her to me and use his sword against the thing. It wasn't that strange giving an emperor orders after all.

He obeyed and leaped into action, slicing off the whatever-it-was first. Houki was dazed and looked over to me to ask what was going on, and what that thing in her bedroom was. "You'll be alright, we're here to protect you," I told her, which was probably one of the more heroic things I had ever said, despite not really being able to do much and just hoping Hotohori would make demon-kabobs out of it. Still, adrenaline took the better of me when it struck at us away, this time with better aim. I moved Houki to the other side, placing my hand on her stomach as I did so, but had no place to go myself, and the thing went straight into my rib cage.

I felt the impact, but the adrenaline was merciful enough to make it just feel like a blur instead a painful sensation. Still, my body couldn't hold itself up, and I felt myself sinking, feeling heavier. In the midst of all the noise, I could hear them shouting my name, but I didn't make any effort to respond; I just wanted to fall.

Would it all have ended there? I guess I should have felt more scared, but it was a strange, peaceful numbness. Houki was screaming my name by now, I could tell that. My hand had fallen lower down her belly, and the one thing I distinctly felt there was a warmness. Maybe that was the prince I was feeling, I thought, and just smiled a little, before everything started feeling much colder, and the room looked darker.

"Keisuke!"

That wasn't a voice in the room. That was Taka's.

"Taka… I can't…"

"I just got them… the memories of Hotohori!"

"Oh… that's great… maybe the demon won't go after Houki…"

"Keisuke, you can't die there. Hold on!"

I didn't feel like I could say much. Dying… was that really was I was doing?

* * *

Sairou seemed nice. Not that it was my first time zapping myself here, but this place seemed nicer than the last. This village was supposed to be the place where Amiboshi was living without his memories and thinking he was 'Kaika'. Of course, anyone's who's read the book could have told me that much. If Suboshi's spirit was still wandering around in the book like the Suzaku warrior's spirits, then the only place I could think for him to be would be here. He wasn't hard to find, just sitting on a hill and watching things down below. It was easy enough to walk up and say, "Hi, you must be Suboshi."

"Leave me alone, jackass."

That was unexpected. But knowing Suboshi, maybe I should have expected it. No wonder Yui didn't go for this guy.

"Excuse me? I'm Tetsuya. Shouldn't you find it at all interesting that I can see you?"

"That's exactly why you're not interesting to me," he grumbled with only a side glance at me. "The only reason you'd be able to see me is if you're dead and working for Tenkou."

"I'm not dead."

"But you're working for the creep, aren't you? For the last time, I want nothing to do with that guy and he should leave me and my brother the hell alone."

"Hey, whoa! That's not why I came. Has Tenkou tried to offer you things before or something?"

"Yeah, like somebody's body to use just so I could do his dirty work. I'm not interested in being alive again for something like that."

"Well, I admit he's got some pretty strange people working for him," I couldn't help but smile, until I realized what that said about me. "How do you know so much about him already?"

He snorted and shook his head a bit. "Yeah, he's only got bodies to offer to dead people, maybe some power and revenge. Nakago used to work with the guy, but that was because he liked that Nakago was powerful to begin with. He only approached me and Tomo after we were dead. So if you're not dead, does that mean you're powerful?" He seemed sarcastic.

"Well, I wasn't before I met him. But I was weird by the standards of people here, being from Yui's world and all."

That one hit a nerve.

He lunged, and I guess because of the powers Tenkou gave me to be able to touch the other ghosts, Suboshi was able to put his hand on my neck instead of just through it. He wasn't choking me (yet), but had a crazed look and was right up in my face; it was enough to make me yelp a little. "You know Lady Yui? How? How is she?"

"She's fine, she's doing great in school, and she's cheerful again. Mostly," I frowned. I couldn't lie to Suboshi. He knew just as well as I did how badly she had been hurt, and he had been even more affected by it than I was. "The things that happened in this world still stick with her, even though she doesn't talk about it much."

"Lady Yui," he frowned and let his grip go some. "Can she ever hope to heal?"

"She's doing a lot better now, though. She and Miaka are the best of friends again, and it turns out she wasn't raped at all, Nakago just made her think so." He was about to rev up on me again when I mentioned his name, so to keep him from taking out his anger on me I quickly added, "I know, I hate him, too. It's his fault any of this happened to her. If only you had been the first to find her instead. I'd have trusted you to take better care of her."

"Whose to say I could have done anything to protect her? She always pushed me away when I tried to protect her, and always wanted to go fly to Nakago, or even Tamahome whenever she was hurting! And still fleeing to the Priestess of Suzaku… Who are _you _to Lady Yui?"

Why could I not find it in me to lie to him? That would have been to smarter thing to do. "I'm… sort of the guy she's dating. Her boyfriend."

He looked like he was either going to cry or laugh, but that expression changed back into his usual angry expression once he started speaking. "She still has such terrible taste. She's actually allowing herself to be with a man who accepted power from some evil god. Do you think that will impress her? Then again, looking at her past choices, you're probably on the right track."

"Who are you calling evil? I've never killed any children!"

"You can't understand what was going on then," he barked. "So are you saying I should join Tenkou too, so I can go after bigger game?"

"No. That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm not even planning on Yui ever finding out that I'm here or what I'm doing. I'm here to help people, people like you who loved their priestess!"

"Then I guess you're not evil. You're just an idiot. Are you sure you're not here to get revenge on anyone?"

"And who would I get revenge against?" I paused, because he probably had a point--a part of me was here because I hated Nakago so much.

"That's the only card Tenkou could think to play against me, but it's really kind of pointless to keep playing the revenge game once I'm already dead. The two people I care about most are safe now, so what's the point? I'm smarter than Tenkou gives me credit for. The guy just isn't creative enough to think that I'm not motivated by the same stuff as the other dead people are. See, I'm not the biggest idiot around here. But maybe if I were a little stupider like someone else here, Yui would have appreciated me more."

"Where do you get off saying all this crap? You don't even know what my mission is. Not that you'd like to hear it, but I'm here to help the Suzaku warriors be with their priestess, and with Tamahome who already left this world. Where is the evil in that?"

He paused, then burst out laughing. A genuine laugh! "No, you must not be evil at all. Just an idiot through and through. That's nothing like what he told me before in his revenge offer."

"Just… why do you keep mentioning this?"

"If you know anything about me and how I died and who I killed and why, you know I always wanted revenge against Tamahome."

What…? But why would Tenkou offer…?

"Any lights finally coming on?"

Is Tenkou just bipolar or completely indecisive as to employ Nakago one moment, then let me be free to do whatever I want to him when the time comes? Why is that coming to mind now?

"You're not worth my time. If you're worth anything to Yui, you'll stand to be a little bit better for her. If not, I'll come after you without any help from Tenkou, whether it's your world or mine."

Though the laws of physics forbade it, I didn't doubt that he had the willpower to come exterminate me in my own world if it was for Yui's sake. As attached as he is to his twin and watching over him, he wouldn't have any kind of problem throwing away his memories if only to be at her side. Why would the Suzaku warriors be having so much trouble with it? Aren't they more than as good as Suboshi?

I don't know when I did it, but I did wind up whisking myself back away to some other place, any other place. I felt that if I spoke to Suboshi any more I was going to throw up or get dizzy or something. I just needed a few moments to clear my head.

Maybe it's because Suboshi's crazy. He was always a character I related to (well, not at first, just after I started falling for Yui and after having read the whole thing), so I kind of overlooked that part of his personality. Keisuke could have warned me about that. I can't just edit these characters to be the way I see them, no matter how well I think I know them. Just like Keisuke's a real person I can't just edit, and even if I don't like it he'd never steer me wrong.

What do I really know about Tenkou? Am I in the right place? There's really no one I can ask. But nothing good is going to happen if I just decide to stop doing this. I still need to help the Suzaku warriors!

But if what Suboshi said about revenge and Tamahome was true, why would Tenkou had told me to help them? What would he have offered the others? Renhou and Miisu, they probably would have wanted something against the people who killed them, and Hikou was killed by his best friend over a lover's spat.

And I left him with Chichiri.

I am the biggest idiot in this entire book.


	12. Heroism

**Author Fangirling: **Back to your once-a-Saturday update as usual! Keisuke, then Tetsuya this time.  


* * *

Wasn't I just dying a second ago? Things were seeming calmer all of a sudden, and I didn't feel any pain at all. Maybe I was still okay, and this was all a dream? No, I was probably already dead because I never had dreams this real.

"Taka… you still there?"

Nope. Couldn't hear anything. He was probably going to have a real bad day, telling Miaka 'hey, guess what, I remember a few of the warriors! Besides being dead, they're doing fine! Oh, speaking of dead, I have to tell you about your brother.' Ha ha… maybe now wasn't the best time to practice my sense of humor.

Man, I never even got a sexy girlfriend. Not even an ugly one for very long.

Then there was a bright light. Wasn't it a little late for that, I thought, but instead of being white this one was red, and pretty darn dazzling. Plus, it had feathers. A person with feathers, anyway.

"I sense you have a connection with My priestess."

Holy crap. This was Suzaku. This was a god! I saw him fighting Seiryuu one time and all, but this one was human looking. He was a deity!

"Call My priestess. Have her summon Me. I will seal away the demon Tenkou."

My hand was moving my cell phone up to my mouth when he spoke to me, and without thinking I pushed the speed dial. It was ringing.

_Doooot. Doooot._

If only summoning a god had ever been as easy as picking up a phone.

_Doooot. Doooot._

Easy, but wrong.

_Click. _

"I'm sorry, Suzaku. I just can't bring Miaka into this anymore, it's not good for her. Besides, she's already fulfilled her duty and summoned you before."

"It is only with one of the Four God's power that he will be stopped. If he is allowed to get any more powerful, it would take more than even just My own power to contain him."

"This isn't my job, either. Taiitsukun wants me out of here as soon as I stop Tetsuya, that's all. I can't do anything else." He should listen to his mother, or whatever she is to him, right?

"I understand your concern. However, I will call to My priestess if it so becomes necessary."

No, please don't do that; I had a sinking feeling. He started to fade away, or maybe it was me that was fading.

"Priestess Brother! I think he's waking up!"

That was Nyan-Nyan. She sound like she was right on top of me. Wincing, I managed to open to my eyes and scope out my surroundings. I was laying flat on a floor, there was a light in my face, and Nyan-Nyan's chin. Nope, not dead. She looked back down to me with wide eyes and a smile to match. "You're alright! I'm so glad!"

"Where the heck have you been all this time!?" I lunged at her with a fist, not actually meaning to hurt her or anything, but wound up falling forward on top of her, like I was too heavy to move myself or something, and the room started spinning again. Maybe I was dead after all, and Nyan-Nyan was killed by that demon earlier.

"Careful. I healed your wounds, but I couldn't pump you up with more blood."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I'm relieved to see you're alright," Hotohori said. "We were afraid the worst had happened when you protected Houki--for which, I am grateful. That was quite brave." Houki was sitting on the bed, looking a little shaken up, but acknowledged similarly that I was alright and thanked me, probably not having heard Hotohori. "It was shortly afterwards that Nyan-Nyan came and we destroyed the demon."

"Destroyed it, huh?"

"I've been keeping very busy," she said, "there were demons following you everywhere! I couldn't catch them all though, sorry about that."

"Well… at least I'm alive."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Houki still looked pretty upset. I assured her I was, standing up as well as I could (but falling down into a chair instead. Good thing she was already taken, otherwise I never would have gotten over doing that in front of a single, pretty girl). "I see," she spoke, and fingered her belly. "I'm very sorry. During the attack, the warmness in my womb… it disappeared."

"Oh no! No, no, no, no, no, don't worry! Nothing bad happened to it, Your Highness, Tamahome was able to recover those memories. That's why they're gone."

"Really?" she instantly looked much more relieved. "Thank goodness. Then hopefully that means the baby will be safe now, too."

Hotohori also smiled warmly. "Then he remembers me now."

"Aw, isn't that nice? Everyone should remember His Majesty," another voice joined the conversation.

"Nuriko!?"

"Nuriko?" Houki looked around.

"Hi dear," he waved. "I hope you don't mind that I invited myself back in, now that my own jewel is taken care of anyway. Besides, look who I found!"

Another ghost stepped out from behind him. "Pleased to meet you. You must be Keisuke, Miaka's brother."

That couldn't have been anyone else. "Chiriko!"

He smiled at the sound of his name, but then frowned. "Nuriko has already told me why you're here. I'm sorry to report that I've already met your friend, Tetsuya."

"And? What's going on, where is he?"

Chiriko explained what had actually happened in the library, and just like I feared, the disappearance of the jewel and the old scholar's murder were both his fault. What I didn't know but should have feared more were these powers he talked about.

"He seemed very confused, like he was sure taking the jewel was for the best. He didn't seem to have any ill will at all."

"That's because Tenkou's been feeding him some stupid lies."

"I had heard a few things about Tenkou before, but," he started to look more uneasy, "after I recovered from the shock, I looked around for more information about Tenkou. It seems that he had also come from your world at some point. He's only gotten so powerful because he's gathered so much negative energy."

"From my world? Who would have even known about this?"

"It seems that it was a very, very long time ago, before any of the priestesses had even been born."

Well, the origins of the books had been around for centuries, so it could have happened who knows how long ago. "Did you find out anything else?"

"He is capable of granting a significant amount of power. Actually, the tribe Nakago belonged to had often called on him for aid."

"That would explain what happened to Tetsuya. He was just a normal guy before."

"I'm not entirely sure what his intentions are, but I think it would be safe to assume that it has to do with world domination." (It was just a little unsettling how he could say that like it was so normal.) He continued, "And given what Nakago had accomplished in the past, it wouldn't seem surprising if he tried to attack your world as well."

"Which would bring Miaka back into this whole mess, too. Why can't bad guys ever think of something a little less inconvenient to everyone else? What are they going to do with all that power once they have it?"

"It's something you and I just can't understand. In any case, Tamahome's memory jewels each have a significant amount of power. I'm very sorry I let him have mine."

"Don't worry about it, you probably put up a good fight. Better than I could have done, anyway, all I have is this rock Taiitsukun gave me, and all it does is glow. It's not even bright enough to blind anyone. Or who knows, maybe it is. Good thing Tetsuya forgot to bring his sunglasses!" Yeah, I have a stupid sense of humor, but he at least humored me by acting like it cheered him up. "So we know Taka--Tamahome, that is--has Tasuki, Nuriko and Hotohori's jewels now, so those are safe from Tenkou. And we know what happened to Chiriko's, but do we know anything about Mitsukake's?"

"I haven't seen him at all," Nuriko shook his head.

"I saw Chichiri earlier, and everything seemed fine. I just didn't get a chance to say anything to him."

"Tasuki's looking for him right now. Hopefully that won't be too hard."

* * *

I wasted no time trying to find Hikou and wherever he had taken Chichiri. The pieces just fit together too well. Chichiri had killed his best friend after he stole his girlfriend from him, and Hikou died on the receiving end of that kind of action. Plus, he probably went out of his way to show up and take him. I'm an idiot for not figuring this out earlier! Here I am trying to save the warriors, but instead I've only put Chichiri in a position to be used for all this revenge business. Suboshi was right, I'm such a big idiot that I was born in the real world because the true extent of my idiocy couldn't even fit in the pages of a book.

Teleportation powers… to anywhere… to wherever he was! My mind was racing too much to focus on exactly where that would be. My desire to get there must have helped instead, because the next thing I new, my feet were wet. I was splashing through some kind of cave, probably Hikou's little secret hideout. He was there alright, berating Chichiri, who was kneeling in the water and whose clothes had been torn by the occasional splash of water Hikou was throwing at him. Mitsukake was there, too, he was just locked in some kind of bubble.

"I knew it. I knew you were only going to do this to Chichiri!" I shouted. Everyone turned to face me and I was mad enough to blow Hikou's head off right then and there, but suddenly there was something sharp and uncomfortably hot against my neck.

"No, _I _knew it. You're that idiot Tetsuya guy Keisuke was talking about. It's your fault my friends are in this mess."

"… Tasuki, isn't it?"

"I was just sneaking in here myself to help them out until you came splashing in." The sound traveled away from my ear as he addressed Hikou instead. "Listen, pal, if you want your other ally back here, you hand over my friends, nice and easy."

"Fry him. I have no friends or allies."

"That's what I thought you'd say. Well, that just gives me an excuse to come over and fry you up close and personal."

"Except that you're afraid of stepping any closer because it looks deeper over there," I muttered.

"I already figured that part out, thanks for calling my bluff for him to hear."

"Tasuki, don't!"

We all turned to Chichiri, who was shaking as he kneeled in the water. His mask was shredded and I wasn't close enough to make out the details of his face. He might have been closing his eyes tightly, or I might just have seen the side of his face with the scar. "Don't hurt him… Hikou, I'm sorry… how can I…"

"You can never atone!" he flared up and hit him with another stream of water in the face.

"Chichiri!" Mitsukake banged on the side of the bubble, but he couldn't do anything. Maybe if he had been in his physical body it wouldn't have been a problem, but in any case the bubble was winning.

Hikou went on, "You'll never know. You'll never understand how much I'm nursed a hatred for you, after so many years! Killing you now wouldn't even be enough for me. It won't be until I take away everything precious thing from you." While this was going on, he made a stream of water wrap around his neck, evidently making it hard for him to breath. Tasuki broke away from me at barked at him to stop, but a wall of water shot up and knocked him down. I ran over to help him up but he pushed me away.

"Get out of my way! I'm not gonna let you do one more thing to my friends!"

"I'm not! I… I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Then just stay out of my way!" he shook me off again.

"Wait, I… I just want to help you all! I don't want to…"

Ignored. Completely ignored. Tasuki, despite having a fear of water, was charging towards Hikou and Chichiri and firing off flames, but Hikou was too prepared for his attacks. Over all the noise, Mitsukake yelled for him, and they had been such tight comrades before that Tasuki could immediately tell that he meant to fired at the bubble instead. It shattered- or popped, I guess- and Mitsukake was free, but Hikou had put a wall around himself and Chichiri, not letting anyone get through.

The wall starting expanding, and faster than we could run, water had filled up the whole cave. It was a source of panic for everyone, sure, but in the water we could hear Hikou's words even clearer.

"Your friends… this world… even your own priestess. You're going to see me make them all suffer."

The look on Tasuki's face went from panicked to serious as soon as Miaka was mentioned, and as if he had no fear at all he started swimming towards Chichiri, reaching out of the water wall with as much strength as he had. It was admirable how much they took care of each other. I was an idiot to think I could have helped at all. But now Hikou wants to hurt Miaka? I can't stand for that! The only thought… or rather, it was a collection of feelings, most of them angry whether at myself, or at Hikou for what he meant to do, or Tenkou for fooling me in the first place, or even Nakago just because he was easy to be angry at… but only one thought: stop him. It's that one thought that materialized, and in some ground shaking manner, caused Hikou to act like an invisible boulder had just fallen on him, and the water all surged away from him. I wasn't sure exactly what happened, but I knew I caused it. Even my fingers were tingling after that.

The water rushed out until it was about knee level again, and I looked behind me to where it had flowed. Tasuki had grabbed hold of Chichiri and washed up a little ways away, and Mitsukake looked just as shaken was but was near them. Whatever the situation was, we had still managed to get Chichiri away from Hikou, so at that moment I got to feel I had done something right.

I didn't get to enjoy that long, because I was suddenly caught in a bubble myself. Have you ever been caught it a bubble? It's like the television got turned inside out so you watch everything from inside a shiny box. I banged on it, and the rainbow wall shook, but not much. I looked over my shoulder and saw that Hikou was back in action, this time looking straight at me with the same angry look he had at Chichiri. That was enough to make me a little nervous, so I turned back and yelled at the others to get away. They started running, and then I felt trapped.

I really hope the plot of this book starts getting better soon.


	13. The nature of relationships

**Author Fangirling: **A shorter chapter this time, but it has one of my favorite scenes. Keisuke, then Tetsuya again.

* * *

So, we knew Tenkou was an evil guy and Tetsuya was a toy. But we didn't know was where either of them was, or what we'd do when we'd find either of them.

"We should focus on finding Tetsuya first," said Hotohori, "And you should fulfill the duty Taiitsukun gave you to bring him back to your world. Seeing as Tamahome has a few of the memory jewels, you will not have to be concerned about him disappearing. Tenkou should not be your concern, though. This is our world, so the other celestial warriors and I will think of something."

"You know, it's funny. I don't think it's your concern, either," I replied. "I mean, the warrior's job is just to protect the priestess, right? And in that sense, they're protecting the country. But you know, Tenkou's just a bully, and you guys really don't have to be the police of this world. If that were the case, wouldn't the other deceased warriors from other countries be involved in this, too?"

The three smiled to each other. "It's personal," said Chiriko.

"Well, if he's trying to take over the country you gave your lives to protect, I can see why you'd still feel responsible," I scratched my head, glad that I never had to be any kind of soldier.

"It goes beyond that," added Nuriko. "He's trying to mess with our Tamahome. We can't be having that."

These guys were for real. All that companionship and coming to each other's rescue. The celestial bond really lasts long after summoning a god or dying. Just looking at Miaka and Taka can attest to that! The power of love, it… maybe it's something I never understood.

I looked down at Nyan-Nyan, who was standing dutifully at my side, then feeling stared at, looked up with a smile. I thought that, maybe sometimes, you don't just need to feel responsible for someone, or have a sense of duty to take care of your friends. Maybe sometimes that's all you want to do just because you care for them. These warriors didn't just die because they're celestial warriors, but because they sincerely cared for one another. Love is… well, just thinking about it this was enough to make me bubble up and smile. I think I'm getting an idea of what it really is, beyond just taking care of Miaka and whatever. Tetsuya's my good friend and we've shared a lot of experiences, but all this time, it's not as if I'm been trying to get him out of the book just because I know that's best for him.

Tetsuya, I'm coming.

Aw, crap! Taka was probably reading all these fluffy thoughts, wasn't he? Well, in case he wasn't, he might had just read that conversation and I thought it best to make sure he was clear on what the plan is. I excused myself from the others to go make a phone call (without saying it that way).

"Taka, it's me! I'm feeling better since the last time we talked."

"Keisuke?"

"Yeah. It's me. What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I can barely hear you. It just started pouring rain."

"Anyway, I'm fine," I spoke up, "and about what the others said about going back as soon as I have Tetsuya?"

"What?"

"Did you read the part about coming back after I have Tetsuya?"

"…es.."

"What?"

"Yes."

He was getting hard to hear, too. "I'm not coming back until Tenkou is defeated."

"What?"

"I met up with Suzaku, I think. He said that if things get too out of hand, he's going to call Miaka to this world again. That's why we have to make sure he's defeated, and I've decided to stay until then."

"You met Suzaku… what?"

"It was weird, I know, but trust me! I--"

"I can't hear anything… think the storm… the reception bad."

"Taka, did you hear me? I'm staying until--"

"…ear you. …sto…hear you…."

"I can't make out anything you're saying. Call me after the storm passes! Call me!"

And the line went dead.

* * *

Sure, I had made some stupid decisions until now and was easily played. But at least this time I helped someone, because the Suzaku warriors got away. For some reason, Hikou didn't go after them.

"You knew all along Tenkou was stringing me along, didn't you?"

"I did."

"What about Renhou and Miisu? Do they know what they've gotten themselves into?"

"Probably not, but they aren't opposed to what they're getting used for."

"Just what is that? What is going on? I can't do anything to stop you from inside this bubble, so just tell me!"

"Tenkou lent us power to bring harm to others. He gets more power from negative energy, so that is what he gains from what we do. Those of us kings who will use the power in such ways have been persecuted by the world, met cruel fates that we, in many lifetimes, would not be able to forget."

"Just forget about it and move on! Get reincarnated or something!"

He smiled. "You believed that? It was only Tamahome who was able to go to the priestesses' world in exchange for his memories and powers. Those memories were not chains to this world, and in fact they make up who he is. Without them, he would cease to exist."

"But you don't exist on your memories, just get rid of them. Move on! You don't need to cause all this chaos!"

"No. I do," he said, then an image of Konan appeared; it was already soaking wet with rain. "The world gave me torment. I will torment it back. I will not be satisfied until both worlds are thrown into a chaos to match my own."

"Both worlds?"

"Both worlds," he repeated. "You think that I'm just keeping you here to chat? You're my bridge, an object which came from that world."

Another image appeared, this time of Tokyo, outside my own apartment, the bus stop I meet Keisuke at every day, all etched in rain. And this was being done through me? Somehow I couldn't feel that bad, like I had already used up my quota for being angry at myself. "What is it with you bad guys? World destruction, world destruction! Both worlds taken over by darkness and despair! What do you get out of that? You make no sense at all. You've already gotten Chichiri's attention, and he feels terrible about what he's done. What more do you want? Destruction, destruction… there will be nothing left! I mean, come on! At least Nakago wanted to rule both worlds, so at least there'd still be something worth ruling!"

"You think I simply mean to destroy it? It will destroy itself. The hearts of people. It's when their true hearts are released that harm is done."

"I know. I know that because you acted on your own desire that Chichiri wound up killing you, but people's hearts aren't all dark."

He leaned his head back and, unsmiling, peered at me. "Then I'm sure you believe your precious priestess has worked every undesirable feeling out of her heart."

My throat felt tight. "Don't bring Yui into this."

"Do you want to see what she really thinks? My water can show you. It brings out the true feelings in a person, even those they do not even admit them even to themselves." An image appeared of Yui in the bath, unaware that anything was going on. My heart started thumping at the thought of him doing anything to her.

"You'll see! She isn't the way she used to be. She's forgiven Miaka, and doesn't have anything like that left! She, unlike some people, was able to move on, and wasn't held down by something like that in her heart."

He ignored me, and then on the image I saw Yui panic when a wave overcame her. She was struggling for air, and as much as I squirmed and wanted to give it to her, I was powerless. Then I heard her voice.

"Tetsuya?"

"Yui!" I called back. "Yui, hang on! I'll help you, somehow!"

"My boyfriend…" her voice trailed, her eyes staying closed. "Why?"

"What?" I paused. It seemed like a weird thing to explain at that moment. "Because I asked you out."

"Right," it almost sounded like her voice was chuckling, "that's what boys in this world do."

"Hang on, Yui… I'm stop him, I'll get you out of this some how. I love you, hang on!" Something… anything! I had to do something. Shouldn't my powers have been kicking in right now? They always did before whenever I really wanted something, but now, when I was seeing the person I loved most in danger, they were being stopped by a bubble. "Yui… I love you… I'll do something…"

"Love… me?"

"Of course! I love you, Yui! You're amazing! You deserved to be loved by someone much better than me, someone who wouldn't have gotten into this situation in the first place."

"I don't love you."

It was like all the sounds of water rushing or my heart beating stopped. "…What?"

"And yet I'm dating you. It's so comforting, to know you just play with your car, go to classes, drink a little more beer than I'd like you to…"

"Yui… how is that…?"

"Normal. I can be normal again."

Normal.

Right. I was helping her be normal. I always knew. I always knew that even if she was just going through the motions and didn't actually care at all for me that I loved her, and the most loving thing I could ever do for her was just be the normal thing in her life. I know that! I've known this! None of it is a surprise at all.

Hikou's water showing her true feelings, this doesn't surprise me at all. It's a hard truth, and I've known it. But!

But…

There was still the hope that there was something more.

It was a little, tiny hope, and… now it's gone.

Even just a little is enough, but without it entirely, I suddenly felt no motivation. No drive to struggle, to know I had to defeat Hikou, not even to lay down and hate myself for everything I had done until this point. I didn't care anymore.

Yui's image and voice faded away, the rain kept raining, and Hikou laughed and taunted me saying that I was surprised. I couldn't care about any of it.


	14. Sources of power

**Author Fangirling: **Surprise! An early update, because I fear I might forget tomorrow! Plus, this makes up for the week I was late. This one starst with Keisuke and ends with Tetsuya again.

* * *

Nyan-Nyan was staring out the window at the pouring rain, as if possessed by it. It was freaking me out a little. "Have you never seen rain, up there on Mt. Taikyoku?"

"Something bothers me about it," she responded without pulling her eyes away.

"Well, you know we're just going to have to go out there anyway if we want to hurry and find Tetsuya. You think I can get an upgrade on this necklace so it'll work for finding him?"

"Hmm." I guess even Nyan-Nyan can have 'don't bug me right now' moments. I thought maybe I should go bug someone else about when to leave the comfort of the castle, but Nyan-Nyan piped back up before I fully faced the door. "Someone's here!"

So out the door we went, into the sleet rain, to see that someone was, in fact, approaching. Not a moment later we heard the guards yelling something along the lines of 'who goes there', and then we could make out it was a man dragging another man, and there was a floating man beside them. The floating man seemed to have his own kind of light, and since it was kind of like some of the others, I figured he was a ghost. We ran ahead a bit to meet them, and the guards had already recognized them and were bustling around.

"Tasuki!" I said once I was in ear-shot, "and Chichiri! What happened?"

"Your stupid friend happened, that's what!"

"Tetsuya! Where is he?"

"You're Keisuke, I take it? I hadn't been able to treat Chichiri yet, given all this rain there's no place to take cover safely."

"Yeah, so give me a hand draggin' this guy in, would ya?"

"His wounds don't seem too serious. Nyan-Nyan will help, too!"

"Thank you."

"You didn't answer my question, where is Tetsuya?"

Tasuki snapped, "We'll talk when we get inside" and so I got under Chichiri's other arm and we trudged in. Now Chichiri and Mitsukake, the last of the warriors were here, but the necklace Taiitsukun gave me wasn't reacting. That was unsettling, and I already had a guess what that meant. But they still explained that part anyway, after I explained the rest of the situation to Mitsukake.

"I see," he said. "Tasuki didn't tell me anything other than that Miaka's brother was here and his friend was causing trouble. People from your world are very powerful."

"Err, not usually, no. And I'm not anything special," I shook my head, then looked up to Tasuki with irritation. "Tasuki doesn't really seem like he's in the mood to explain much."

"Shut up! There's nothing to do right away, I just want t' warm up, dam--ahh choo!"

"Tsk, poor Tasuki," cooed Nuriko, "Really that frozen in a little rain?"

"You're dead, you can't feel the half of it! And it's pouring out there!"

"That part is Hikou's fault."

"Maybe you should do the explaining," I turned back to Mitsukake, "Do you know where Tetsuya is?"

"Hmm," he frowned, "the last I saw him, he was with Hikou."

I hung my head in frustration. "Who is Hikou, and where is he?"

Mitsukake frowned again, then looked back over to Chichiri, who was asleep. "A old friend of Chichiri's, but I should leave it at that."

"What? Them? Friends? Not the jist I got!" Tasuki piped in.

Friend... Chichiri... "Oh! You don't mean _that _friend, do you?"

Mitsukake pursed his lips but his eyes got wider than they looked like they should have. Some people might have thought this was his angry face, but I think it was actually his surprised face. "How would you know about...?"

"Oh... um... long story."

"Did Miaka tell you anything about tha-"

"No, it wasn't Miaka, it just comes with... um... my power. Right. Sometimes when people comes here from my world, they get some powers, and mine is knowing things like that. Ha ha, ha..."

"You had what?" Hotohori's face was unmistakably angry. "You didn't mention anything of the sort!"

Chiriko had a more fond look. "That would be a nice power."

"Well, it--it's really kind of a stupid power! I don't know very much, and most of it isn't even useful, so uh... yeah! I didn't really know anything important until now!"

"Really?" Tasuki moved in closer, his eyes just as wide. "What else do you know?"

Nyan-Nyan's face was furrowed up as she put two and two together in her mind. "I don't think that's really how it works. The priestesses who came were priestesses, so that's different, and your friend was granted powers by Tenkou, but you--"

"Shhh! Nyan-Nyan, don't go saying _that!_" I clasped her mouth shut and tried to cover, "that's a major secret of this world that if any normal person knows, their heads will explode!"

"But we're dead, we don't have any heads to explode," frowned Chiriko, obviously wanting to know whatever it was. Not that I was going to tell them I read about them all in a book they were born inside of!

"We're not even normal people, we're celestial," added Tasuki, "but anyway, what's all this stuff about Chichiri and his old friend? If they were friends, why would he have been attacking him, and what's with all the rain and water powers?"

I'll be grateful to Tasuki forever for changing the subject. "That's something you'll have to ask him, if he wants to tell you. More importantly, where is he? And if Tetsuya was with him, does that mean they both work for the same guy?" It felt strange saying that, because that would have implied that Tetsuya would have helped in the beating up of Chichiri, which he'd never do.

"He was in a cave, but we had to hurry and get away and leave Tetsuya there."

"Leave him... is he in trouble? Then that means he didn't hurt you guys after all!"

"No," Mitsukake had a nervous chuckle, "He certainly did do that part earlier."

My heart sank. "He... he really attacked a couple of Suzaku warriors?"

"Earlier, anyway," he said, "he was the one who took Tamahome's memory jewels, and because we were weakened by his attack Hikou was able to take advantage and," he paused, maybe because the next word seemed weird to use on a couple of grown men, "kidnapped us."

"But then... he was with Hikou the whole time?"

"No, he returned, but I can't say I'm exactly sure what happened. We just had to get away while we had the chance."

"And before the rain got any harder," added Tasuki. "Anyway, he's out of the way, good riddance. Let's just take down Tenkou and then you can get his sorry ass home."

"Tetsuya is not 'good riddance'!" I raised my voice.

Instead of yelling something back, Tasuki seemed more contemplative. "Huh. You and Miaka really _are_ similar."

* * *

The water flowed. Who cared. I sure didn't.

So Yui doesn't really love me, and I guess I'm getting used just so she can return to a normal love. I know that. I'm okay with it, really. It shouldn't surprise anybody.

It won't really matter, then, if I just stay here, trapped in a bubble forever. Yui's okay, and she won't be sad for me long, and she'll just get on with her life again. She'll find someone who doesn't keep his nose in a book which ruined her life. He'll be a cool kid, someone who will care for her more than his own life. Yeah, probably someone like Suboshi, just a little less crazy.

Yeah. No need for me anymore. I hope I helped her where I could.

Even though the bubble was a small space, I didn't feel crowded. In fact, it was like the bubble became an ever distance dark space, but still just as rainbow patterned against the darkness. There was water, but I wasn't cold. It was just me and my eternal bubble.

Until someone interrupted.

I couldn't make out the figure at first, partly because I didn't bother looking at whoever it was. There was a pretty light, though, and I could tell whoever it was wore ornate, regal stuff. Maybe it was like how I pictured Seiryuu Seikun, but it couldn't be him. He was sealed away in Chiriko's scroll.

The person stepped closer, and if it had been any kind of human, I would have been able to hear all the armor jingling. Curiously, I looked closer at his (it had to have been a man) boots, and then noticed how fair his head was, even for already having that glow. A blonde person.

A blonde person... Nakago?

My eyes darted up to the see the face, and sure enough, his hair was blonde and his eyes were blue. Someone that mysterious in this book couldn't have been anyone else.

"Well?" his surprisingly deep voice said, "Don't you have anything to say to me?"

"...Nakago?"

"Yes."

"Why are you... did Tenkou send you here? You're still working for him, aren't you?"

He scoffed, "I have no interest working for the promise of a body on loan, only to experience death again for the sake of god so powerless he has to rely on the negative prayers of people's hearts. A real god would have no need for depressed people to sustain his existence."

He must have had some issues with him to have said that much. "Then why...?"

"I could sense someone's hatred for me, and had heard you were looking for me. When that hatred started to subside, I was interested."

"Interested... ha. So it's just as soon as I lose interest that you show up."

"If you have nothing to say to me, then I'll leave."

"No!" I reached out for him, strangely not in anger. I couldn't have just let all that previous anger go to waste. If he was here, I couldn't just let the chance pass me by. Angry, I had to get angry again! What was it exactly that I was going to say to him? I was sure I had this all planned out, but I was blanking. Of course I hated him, but what was I thinking exactly before?

"I take it you know Lady Yui, and that's why you wished to see me," he stepped back towards me with a grin. He wanted to make me mad again. This was fun to him. He was a heck of a lot more intimidating that I always pictured him, so my head was still blank. "And you came from her world. Do you remember my visit? I could have been your god."

"You're not a god!" I yelled. Something was working, words were coming out of my mouth again. "You were just a power maniac! Do you know how many people had to die, had to suffer because you had to get all that power? Hotohori should still be leading his people, but you monster! You killed him! And Mitsukake, he wouldn't have died if not for you!"

"Those were their choices. I had no death wish for His Majesty of Konan, he attacked me and I had to do that. As for Mitsukake, certainly he would have given up all of his life force to save those people anyway, regardless of his condition."

"Even the people of Kutou... left with no ruler, not even a bad one! The Seiryuu warriors... so many of them wouldn't have had to die if not for your orders!"

"Kutou is at peace with it's neighbors now and rebuilding itself. And a celestial warrior's destiny is to die for the sake of his priestess summoning a god. It's strange," he said, "that none of what you're saying concerns you. Much less, none of this is regarding Lady Yui."

Yui, of course. I never wouldn't have hated Nakago this much if it wasn't for what he did to Yui. Yui...

Yui...

I loved her, but I had no words to say to Nakago. I started to sink back again, unfinished but unable to go on.

"Pathetic," he eyed me. "She's fortunate not to have had warriors as flippant as yourself."

"That's for sure," I slumped back. Some powers I had. I'm wasn't sure of everything that was going on, but what I had figured out from the things Suboshi and Keisuke said was that I was not helping the warriors to reincarnate, Tenkou was evil and played me like a violin, somehow whatever I was doing was probably doing some bad to Taka, Hikou was using me as a bridge to take over both worlds in rain, and what else? That I'm an idiot? I haven't said that part enough yet.

"Glad you agree," he said, but didn't look very happy. "Now if you don't mind, would you at least get yourself out of this place? It's disgusting."

"Huh?"

"The rain is only getting harder. Don't forget, even though I don't live there anymore, my intention was never to destroy the world or throw it into chaos."

"…Then you only came to stop the rain."

"It's not a major concern, but it would be irritating to feel like I have to stop it myself."

"Then do it."

"Hmph," he smiled. I hated how he could smile at the people he knew hated him. "I won't."

"What?" I stood up. Now I was the one who was disgusted! "You came here to say 'I don't want these worlds to drown, but even though I could, I'll do nothing to stop it?' You--you're despicable! Innocent people are going to get killed, houses are going to get flattened… even in my own home town, terrible things are going to happen! Yui's there!"

Now I lunged at him. Thank you, Tenkou, for powers that allowed me to touch dead people. "Yui's there, your own priestess, and you won't do anything?! Anything could be happening to her right now, and you won't lift a finger! Not until the moment that works best for you!"

He hmphed again in my face with that same smile. That little sound was enough make my chest get hot.

"You never did anything that was best for her. It was always what was right for you, just the perfect time to bring her into your little traps. You're powerful enough that you knew as soon as she got to this world, didn't you? But you let her get attacked by those men until just the right time! Couldn't you have spared her?"

Now his expression changed, although not much. "Did you ever watch someone be raped?"

"No, but--"

"It burns an image into your memory. Not so much in the way a woman screams, but in the way she squirms."

Why is he telling me this? Is he trying to make me picture what Yui went through?

"It's a disgusting image, and not one fit for Lady Yui. I wasted no time in obliterating those men, but Yui had already lost consciousness before I got there."

Couldn't he have at least hurried up? He had to have known she was in trouble!

"But even so, you didn't have the decency to tell her that's not what happened. Yui's not like me, she's smart! I'll bet you had to work pretty hard to get her so wound up like that. She was so fooled by you that I don't think she'll ever be the same. She'll always have that scar. And even now… she still has your earring!"

"Then she can't even be angry at me. It was Yui who chose so many times to run to me, to cling to me. Even kissing her, it was all what she wanted."

"No… I know. But she was wrong! Even now, it's hard for her to look back on it, and she's dating me just so she can forgot. Someone had to be mad at you for her! For her, someone has to hate you!"

"Because you love Lady Yui, so push yourself to feel emotions she can't? You and I have nothing to do with each other, but it is only for her sake you have a death wish for me. Unfortunately for you, it was someone who deserved such a wish that got to fulfill it. Reasonably, you should feel nothing towards me."

"I hate you!"

That wasn't just Tenkou's power. That was my own muscles pushing him down. He was surprised to have wound up on his behind, and probably even more surprised when I charged again, grabbed his scarf and started pounding on his face. Pounding for all I had, yelling the whole while. I didn't need any words. In this one moment, I just got to pour myself out on this guy. I could blame him for everything. Everything that happened to Yui, her scar, the Suzaku warrior's deaths, my having gotten dragged in here and making things worse in the first place! I was caring about things a lot more now than when he came in, but it didn't bother me that I was crying and crying while pounding him and pounding him. It was the most raw moment of my life, just doing exactly what my gut wanted to do to this guy. If only he had been alive, and I could have watched him bruise and bleed, but even then I still would have kept going.

Of course, it didn't last long. Nakago wasn't about to just let anybody do that, and raw strength to raw strength, even as a dead guy he was stronger. One backhand to my chest and I was flying back across my bubble, coughing for air, and barely able to sit up for a minute.

Though he didn't need to because there wasn't any blood, he still unconsciously wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. He looked surprised and little ticked off, but not really like he was in pain or anything. "You really are stupid," he said in that flat tone, than had that mocking smile again. "To still be here."

I think it was at that moment when I was trying to figure out if the smile meant anything else that the bubble shattered. I fell a couple feet through the air and onto my rump in the water, and Hikou was quick to notice the splash. "What?" he whipped around, "Why were you able to do that?"

I didn't answer. I thought I had just figured out what the rest of the smile meant, and started laughing instead. Tenkou… he's just fed by depression and people's anger towards him and negative stuff like that. But Tenkou had nothing to do with what I had just been feeling. Nakago, that devil! He had just gotten me out of there by making me walk into another trap. By getting angry directly at him instead of being depressed, Hikou's power over me broke.

I hate to say it, but I owe him one.


	15. Group rescue

**Author Fangirling: **Keisuke, then Tetsuya, then Keisuke again! Again, I'm zooming past OVA scenes I expect you to know so as to get on the narrative and to leave those scenes as much as possible like the original.

* * *

Chichiri woke up. Took me enough by surprise, especially since he caught me at kind of an embarrassing moment. "Sorry," he said dimly.

"Whatever," I lied, and quickly wiped my eyes. I had only be crying a little bit, after all, it wasn't much. Just my eyes getting a little damp. I had volunteered to keep an eye on Chichiri, and while it quiet I had more of a chance to think about what was really going on.

"Is it still raining?"

"Yeah, but not as much now."

"That's good."

"Ha. It was raining in my world, too. Funny how that works."

Chichiri didn't respond. I think he fell back asleep. Things got boring again. Until my cell phone rang, which he didn't respond to. "Taka!" I hissed into it, "can't you see I'm trying to keep quiet?"

"No, because the book is talking about Tetsuya now!"

"What?" Hadn't it not followed anyone but me until now? "What's going on? Is he still with Tenkou?"

"You mean 'Hikou', and yeah. As soon as he came in, the rain here just stopped suddenly."

"What is he doing?"

"Fighting."

"With Hikou?"

"I can't tell. It's not being that clear, and they're just saying things about them both having power from the same person, so they're at equal strength, but it looks like Hikou is stronger anyway."

"Then what's going on? Is he in trouble or what? Taka, fill me in here!"

I heard him turning pages. "I don't know! He just came in all of a sudden and started saying all this stuff I don't get, like where Tenkou's power comes from. If that's all true, then why does this guy need my memories?" he growled, but then his tone changed. "And speaking of memories. It's been happening since I started reading, but especially since I got Hotohori's jewel… I'm seeing all these images of Miaka I had never seen before. She was… and I don't know what's going on in them."

"Listen, Taka… you can ask her about that later, okay?"

"I just… it makes me really want to see her. Right now. I'll take the book with me, but I want her with me right--"

"Taka, no! Do not bring Miaka into this! That would be the worst thing for her right now! What if Tenkou were to get a hold of her, too? You have to stick around and keep updated with what's going on. We might be able to get your other jewels from Tenkou, who knows! Just stay where you are and don't tell her anything!"

There was a pause.

"You're right."

"Okay. Keep an eye on Tetsuya, I'll get to him as soon as I can. Let me know as soon as you have a better idea what's going on."

"No promises. The next page is about you, but I'll call if it says anything else."

I clicked my phone off and started to heave a sigh, but before I did so, Chichiri said, "that was Tamahome, wasn't it?"

"Weren't you asleep?"

"Glad to know he's doing alright. After all, we all had no idea where he went… but now he's with Miaka. That's good."

"…Yeah. I guess no one had a chance to fill you in on everything yet."

"Tetsuya. He's your friend?"

"Yeah. And I'm really, really sorry he's gone all evil on you and did stuff like that to you, and stole Tamahome's memory jewels, and all that stuff. Really sorry."

"Well, he's one of the people I've had more trouble with than not," he sat up, slowly, but not as if he was in terrible pain. "But I wouldn't say he's evil. He seemed like he thought he was doing something to help us, in whatever warped sense."

"…That's good?"

"Is he in trouble right now?" he asked in a low tone, "With Hikou?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Probably. I know who Hikou was to you, but… Tetsuya's like that to me, so I really need to go help him out. I understand if you don't want to go, but if you could just tell me where he is I'll go."

"No, I need to go. Hikou needs rescuing, too. This time, I intend to do it."

"Great! I'll go grab Tasuki and we'll--"

"Can you take your friend and get out on your own?"

"Uh… well… If he's still got those powers and he wants to have a fight, then no. Otherwise, if you're going to handle Hikou, then… you know, I still don't think so."

He sighed. "Get Tasuki, then."

So we headed out. The rain was getting slower and slower.

* * *

So we had our discussion about power from Tenkou, which was enough to tie someone's brain up in knots. We were both normal people (except for the part about him being a ghost in someone else's body) with no supernatural powers, but Tenkou granted us both powers. Tenkou's power comes from people's negative energy directed at him or his Kings, or just general hopelessness that gets directed at no one so he can use it all he wants. So if Hikou were to attack me right then, he would use powers from Tenkou which stems from people's negativity. So if I wanted to make him weaker, all I had to do was not be mad at Tenkou, or picture him with a bunch of rainbows and bunny rabbits and be ever-so-happy he brought me to this world and gave me powers. But I did that, it would make me weaker, too. So in this catch 22, whatever I did made it come down to a test of willpower, or Tenkou deciding since I wasn't for him anymore, he'd take my powers away. That wouldn't be a very good outcome.

Actually, I didn't want to fight at all. Now that I figured out how these powers worked, I was kind of disgusted that I was one of the Kings who got to use them (but thinking that might have made them stronger?). Maybe it would have been better just to teleport myself out of there, but Hikou's barriers were better than my mobility, so that didn't work well. Hikou was the first to make an attack, so I had no other choice but to attack back.

Maybe if I could have stayed on that train of thought longer, I would have figured out that inside that hideout of his with that barrier made by his own power, that naturally, his powers would be a little stronger and mine a little weaker. Plus, Hikou didn't find the origins of his power disgusting at all and so he didn't hesitate using them. So it almost goes without saying that I wasn't doing so good. Who knew water could hurt so much?

He wasn't very happy that I wouldn't be his tool anymore for drowning the worlds, and also wasn't very happy that I let Chichiri get away. Well, at least I did something right. I didn't really feel like thinking much because my head was so waterlogged and thrown around. I was trying to stand up and face him with another attack, but my head felt so heavy that I fell down to my knees again in the water.

"I'm not… going to kill you…" I said. It sounded exactly like something out of the superhero TV shows I would watch as a little kid where the righteous guy would never stoop to killing the confused bad guy.

"Of course you're not."

Well, that didn't have the effect I wanted it to, especially since he was lifting his hand to throw another blast of water in my face.

"Tetsuya!"

Keisuke…?

I turned my head to look for him just as the water hit me, so at least it wasn't square between the eyes this time. It was still enough to blow me back a good distance, but instead of hitting a rock wall this time, someone caught me. My sight was too blurry to recognize much, but I was pretty sure who it was. "Keisuke."

"Tetsuya!" He sounded really happy.

* * *

"Ow, my back." Tasuki had made the catch, not me, and as a result he got planted against the wall of the cave.

"Is he alright?" Nuriko's ghost peeked over my shoulder.

"That's the one, alright," said Chiriko. When I asked Tasuki to come with us, the whole crowd wound up coming. After all, Hotohori had said, we might able to find out where Tenkou was from Hikou or something. It's a good thing we did have everyone, because while Chichiri was busy having more a showdown with Hikou, a couple of other people showed up looking for a fight.

Wait… showdown with Hikou?!

"Chichiri!" I yelled, "What are you doing?" Was he meaning to kill Hikou? Again!?

After some exchanges, he wound up holding Hikou from behind and they were enveloped in his tunic, and then he yelled for Tasuki to fire at them. He was suicidal! I yelled for him not to do it, but something I knew very well by this time was wrapped around my arms: another demon appendage. There's no end to these things, is there?

"Ufu," a woman laughed. "Do you like all the presents I've been sending you?"

The way she was dressed looked kind of like bondage, and she had a pair of plump lips. This girl was a babe! If only this context could have been a bit better. "You know, there are things I'd like better," muttered I, since I wasn't been held too tight to talk. "Wouldn't chocolates have been better?"

"Hmm," she smiled. And man, was it a sexy smile. Then she fingered her necklace and a bunch of other demons appeared. They zoomed behind me and, I assume, started attacking the other warriors.

"What do you know, we have matching necklaces," I said. "Something strangely romantic about that, isn't there?"

"A romance with you would be strange, wouldn't it?" she leaned towards me. Yeah, we were completely flirting now, even though she probably meant to kill me. Maybe it wasn't too late to get a little someone out of this book after all.

"Priestess Brother!" another little someone appeared. "Hang on, I'll free you."

"I'm alright for now. Take care of Tetsuya!"

"Roger!"

After all, I was alright for the moment. It wasn't like I was telling her not to interfere. "So, hi. My name's Keisuke and my necklace doesn't do much. And you are?"

"One of the Four Kings of Earth, Miisu."

"King, huh? I hope you don't have any surprises for me down there, but you're a regular princess if you ask me."

"I'm flattered, thank you," she smiled. Things weren't actually all that pleasant, since I couldn't hear her well over the sound of rushing water and warriors and demons fighting with each other. "I assure you, I'm quite female and I'm straight."

"Nice to hear that we'd get along," I smiled, though a little more so cringed because the thing's grip was getting tighter. "If it weren't for the fact that you're trying to kill me."

The sound of water subsided. Behind Miisu, I could see that Chichiri was alright, but Hikou was lying in his lap.

"I've been killed. This method isn't so bad, trust me."

"Killed? Looks like we'd have a lot to talk about on a first date."

"How unfortunate we won't have a chance to chat more."

"Aw… you're just going to kill me like this?" Now I really was starting to get scared. After all, if Nyan-Nyan hadn't been there at the demon attacks before, I would have already been killed by this woman's demons. "Wouldn't some mouth-to-mouth poison be a little nicer for both of us?"

"I say he dies now."

Oh, didn't notice that guy before. Who was it, her boyfriend?

"Go ahead, Renhou. I'll do away with the warriors." And she was gone. Renhou didn't look half as friendly.

"Don't fuck around with my sister."

Ah ha. Her brother. "Hey man, I know how you feel, no hard feelings. I have a sister, too." Not that I've ever felt like I had to beat up on her boyfriend or anything. Not that I'd be stupid enough to try!

"I'm quite aware. That Priestess of Suzaku. It's unfortunate that you're the one causing trouble here instead of her, it'd be much faster just to have her here to kill right now."

_Miaka! _ "Don't touch her!"

He wasn't willing to talk anymore and started charging his hand right at me, fast enough to blow it right between my eyes and through my head, I was sure! I flinched and held my eyes closed tight, just in time for blood to splatter all over my lids.

Except… that wasn't my blood.


	16. A skill from his world

**Author Fangirling: **I know I said before that this would be an 18-chapter story, but I changed my mind. Next week will be the final update, and this chapter is the final one which switches POV between Keisuke and Tetsuya (in that order for this chapter, again).

* * *

I looked back up. Renhou was still there, only with a large, burning hole in his chest. Something had gone straight through him, something with no physical form, kind of like a life force blast. Where would it have come from?

Behind me, there was Tetsuya, panted heavily. "…Sorry."

Renhou's body fell, Miisu screamed and went to his side. Because her train of thought was interrupted, I guess, the demons all went limp and I was able to scramble away. "Tetsuya," I looked back to him with a smile. "You saved my a--"

"Miisu, don't! Wait!" he ignored me and rushed to her side. "Don't let this get the worse of you. You'll make Tenkou more powerful that way. Wait… wait! Mitsukake! Mitsukake, please! Heal him!"

Miisu wouldn't take any of it. Unfortunately for Tetsuya, he was kneeling right next to her and she reached up and grabbed his neck with her bare hand, screaming at him. He was still trying to choke out her name and for her to stop. He had just saved me, I had to save him! There had to be something I could--

Evidently not. When I rushed towards her the sheer force of her anger, I think it was, pushed me back. Nuriko's armlet's stopped me from sailing any further. "Tetsuya, he's---"

"I think he's alright," he said and pointed back. Tetsuya had forced her hand off, and was holding her down, still trying to talk to her.

"Don't you realize what you're doing? Your going to bring this whole place down. It's not too late for you or Renhou yet."

"It is too late!" she hissed. "And I'll take this whole world with us! After what they've done to us, after how much we've been hated!"

"Don't say that, or the whole world really will come crashing down!"

"Go ahead. Make it crash, make it suffer."

That wasn't a voice I knew. The necklace started feeling really hot, and it was hard to look at because of how bright it was turning. It was reacting to the rest of Tamahome's memory jewels, which had to have been with Tenkou, which meant that voice belonged to a certain former-earth inhabitant gone nuts and wanting to take over or destroy the world(s).

His was an unusually large figure, and he was warped enough that he certainly didn't look like someone from my world. "Do it, Miisu."

She stood up lifelessly like a marionette, and looked up only to pierce Tetsuya with a stare. There was no one in the world she hated more at that moment, it was obvious. She put her hand to her necklace and the cave started rumbling as a bunch of demons came out and rampaging.

"Tetsuya, what is going on?" I shouted to him.

"Her anger. It's all making Tenkou's power stronger."

"That sounds like something out of Power Rangers."

"The Power Ranger lines aren't working here, though."

Then there were also Tamahome's memory jewels to think about. Tenkou had at least three of them, which was making him that much stronger. If only getting those three to Taka was as easy as the earlier ones. But what could I do? Charging at Tenkou wouldn't do anything but get my head chopped off (or worse). There really wasn't anything I could do, was there?

I know I'm not special here. I'm just a student in college who studies sports medicine and goes to a club to reread and reread an ancient book, and I happened to have witnessed the summoning of Suzaku because I'm the priestess' brother. I'm just Taka's go-between. Then again, maybe I'm not really the special one, maybe it's just this necklace Taiitsukun gave me.

But this necklace can do more than I can, can it?

"Nuriko," I turned back to him, tearing the necklace off of my neck to hand to him. "This is from Taiitsukun. You can pick it up, right?"

"Right," he tried out doing so, though looked a little confused why I was bringing this up.

"I'm going to trust you with this. When I say 'go', I need to you to throw it at me."

"Throw it at you!? What will that do? And why me? I'm not any normal person, if I throw this at you it'll go right through you."

"That's better that than a demon appendage. Just trust me on this." Despite the impending chaos of all the demons approaching, I asked Hotohori to lend me his sword.

"You can't expect to defend yourself with this," he gave me a stern look. Really, it was just an excuse not to fork it over.

"Come on, you gave it to an inexperienced little girl to use."

"That's differe--"

"Please, Hotohori, I need it right now! There's nothing else here that I can use!"

Begrudgingly, he handed it over. It wasn't a weight I was used to, and the shape was different, but similar enough. Finding my footing, I said "okay, this'll work. Nuriko… Go! As hard as you can!"

The wind up… and the pitch…

And a perfect hit!

Despite being smaller, it was thrown with more force than a baseball, so it still flew about the same as I was used to. Tenkou had no way of seeing it coming, so it hit him straight in the forehead, shining even brighter as it had impact, which made him scream in pain. It was a home run!

"That was amazing!" cheered Chiriko. "That must have been part of your power to know it would have down that!"

"Heh heh. If you ever come to our world again to visit, Taka and I will have to take you to a baseball game."

"Now!" shouted Tasuki as he waved his tessen at Tenkou. Instead of him being hit with the flames, though, Miisu appeared in their placed and was scorched, then disappeared as if in a different cloud of flames, as did all the demons.

"He just used her as a shield! …Monster!"

We weren't the only ones who saw. Renhou, with whatever he had left in him, was able to get up and start screaming her name. He yelled some stuff at Tenkou before ultimately disappearing in a cloud of flames himself. Those were two disturbing images, which I hope I won't always remember this clearly. So now it was just us all against Tenkou.

"So this is him, no da?" Chichiri put his mask back on. Looks like everybody was ready for a showdown. Well, except me. I couldn't do anything else now and was already pretty satisfied the baseball thing worked (or at least Tenkou didn't like it much). I was meaning just to stand back and let things go by… but then there was Tetsuya.

* * *

"The last of the Four Kings. Are you satisfied you've gotten to come and have the chance to exact your revenge on Nakago?"

This guy was creeping evil. But as long as he wasn't hated, he didn't have any power, right?

"Sorry, I've got you figured out," I said. "And actually, it is thanks to you that I've gotten to come here at all, and meet people I've always wondered about. Sure, I did some stupid things, but I did a lot of really cool things, too, that I'll never get to do again. So for that, thank you." Ha ha, that would make him a little weaker, wouldn't it? I untied the crown around my forehead and then offered it over to him. "You can take back these powers. I don't need them."

After all, the best thing I can do for Yui is be normal for her-- she said that herself. And even if she doesn't actually love me right now, I can still hope that someday she might. My hope isn't gone at all.

Tenkou was laughing. This was probably a bad thing. Maybe I hadn't actually figured him all out.

"I don't need you anymore anyway. The warriors are all gathered. Suzaku will soon summon his priestess here, and then they will watch me make her suffer."

This wasn't part of the plan! "No!"

"Of course one of my King's emotions can make me powerful, but it was I who gave you power in the first place. A celestial warrior is much more useful."

No… no!! I really was just chopped liver, he was after the Suzaku warriors the whole time! It's not that just anyone's sorrow can make him stronger! "Don't! No!" I turned to face everyone. They had to at least know that! I had to tell them!

"No longer needed," he voice bellowed again, and he pointed a finger at me. Some kind of dark something-or-other shot out of it, and I was probably going to die right there.

"Tetsuya!"

There was Keisuke again. Right in front of me to take the blow. I started to shout "no", but I wasn't fast enough. The world around me started flashing in all kinds of colors, but I wasn't harmed. Strangely, Keisuke didn't look harmed either.

"Are you okay?" he turned around to me. I nodded, but asked what was going on. He looked up and around us, where I now noticed we were in some kind of orb. "Nyan-Nyan," he shouted. "How much more of this can you take?"

"Not much!" a voice squeaked back.

"Crap. What do we do now?" he breathed, then reached for my shoulder. "Let's see if we can get awa--"

As soon as he touched me, though, it looked like that's what we did. No one but us was there in some starry looking place where we were floating. "Dude, Keisuke… did we die?"

"No, that'd look a little different than this. Where is this, anyway?"

"Well done, Keisuke."

Whoa! If I did die, this had to have been hell if that's what everyone looked like.

"Taiitsukun! What's going on? Bring us back! We have to help everyone stop Tenkou."

"Oh, stop. There's nothing a couple of boys like you could do. You've already accomplished your mission and secured your friend, and now you need to bring him back to your world."

"No! Not yet! If you send us back now, Suzaku will bring Miaka ba--"

And with a thud, we were back in the club room. Well, it was more than a thud. The table tipped over when we hit it and we slid off onto a couple of chairs, which broke. "Damn it!" Keisuke was the first to sit back up and fumble around for the book. "Let me back in!"

"Keisuke," I touched his shoulder. "It's not going to let either of us back in."

"Huh?" he looked around. "Where's Taka?"

"Taka?"

"He was reading the book!" he started calling on his cell phone. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but whatever was going on was important enough for me to hear, too, so I pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker.

It rang another time, and then he picked up. "It's me."

"Taka! Where are you?"

"Keep reading."


	17. Return to the usual

**Author Fangirling: **3rd person POV, it kills me. Save a Tamaneko today, leave a review. Thanks for reading this far!

* * *

"Tamahome, having regained the memories taken by Tenkou, had enough power to return to his original world and aid his fellow warriors in their fight against the demonic god," Keisuke read, then paused. "We switched places. Just like how Miaka and Yui did."

"It looks that way. Is he going to be able to come back, though?" responded Tetsuya. He had located his sunglasses under the broken chair and was putting them back on. They were huddled on the floor together with the book, having not even bothered to set the room back in order.

"I don't want to think about that until after Tenkou's dealt with. But since Taka's back as Tamahome, they shouldn't have too much trouble, I hope."

They continued reading silently as the pages described the fight. It certainly wasn't the most impressive they had ever had, but they weren't winning yet, either. "I'm really sorry about all this."

"Yeah, I know."

"I was an idiot."

"I know."

"Thanks for coming to get me."

"Sure."

They kept reading, but the air still felt heavy to Tetsuya. "You know, you were right all along."

"About what?" he finally picked his eyes up from the page.

"Yui. How she's only dating me because I'm normal."

"Now, I'm sure that's not the only--"

"I heard it from her myself," he seemed like he was pained to smiling. "It's not as if she's stringing me along or anything. Still, now that we've been in the book ourselves, our normal-meters are a little lower. Don't tell her anything I did, okay?"

"Oh, sure, first you have me save your ass and now you want me to keep secrets? Ha ha, sure, no problem. And Miaka shouldn't hear anything about this, either. So long as Taka comes back safely, anyway."

They fell silent again and continued reading. The warriors were still giving it their all. Keisuke stayed glued to the page, but Tetsuya got up to pick through some of the things that had fallen off the table and shelves. He couldn't handle the suspense, Keisuke thought, and continued keeping an eye on the words. "Ah ha, here it is," Tetsuya held up a notebook, and returned to Keisuke's side to flip through it.

"What?" the other finally asked and looked over. "Are those your notes on the Universe of the Four Gods?"

"I want to at least do something right. Now, what's this you were saying about Suzaku calling Miaka in?"

"When I was half-dead, I met Him. Suzaku."

"You were half-dead? When?"

"One of Miisu's demons almost did me in. It's a shame, she was really into me."

"She was incestuous, you know."

"What?"

"So what did Suzaku say?"

"He said that if things were getting any worse with Tenkou, He would have to have Miaka summon Him again so he could take care of it. Guess it's just a job big enough for a real god to do."

"Did Seiryuu say the same thing? Will Yui get dragged in?"

"I don't know. I didn't meet Seiryuu. Miaka sealed him away, remember?"

"That's right!" he flipped more eagerly through the notebook. "In Chiriko's scroll. They have a god in their possession and they don't even know it!"

"You don't think…?"

"Sure as hell I'm thinking that. If they unlock Seiryuu, they'll just have him get rid of Tenkou! They probably haven't thought of anything like this, we should tell them!"

"Um… He's been sealed for a long time. Don't you think He'll be a little bit mad and won't want to listen to them?"

"Even Nakago wanted to get rid of Tenkou, Seiryuu will, too."

"It's making me really nervous how confident you sound."

Tetsuya dialed Taka's phone again and put it on speaker so they could both listen while reading the warrior's actions in the book.

* * *

Tasuki jumped. "What's that noise?"

"That's Tetsuya's ring tone," Taka looked over his shoulder. "Shoot, I dropped it over there. Answer it, would you?"

"This thing? What do I do with it?"

"Open it and put it to your ear."

"It's still making that noi--ow! It bit me!"

"You didn't open it wide enough, and you need to push the green button on the inside. Hurry up and figure it out!"

Tasuki did so. "Now what!?"

"Say 'Hello'!"

"Hello."

"Tasuki! It's me, Tetsuya!"

"I don't want to talk to him!" Tasuki shouted back to Tamahome. "Now what do I do with it? Break it?"

"Don't break it!"

"Nyan-Nyan will talk!" she took it from him. "This is Priestess-Brother's friend, right? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you. We're back in our world."

"I'm here, too. Thanks, Nyan-Nyan. Can you put this on speaker-phone and get everybody to listen?"

"Okay!" she answered and figured out how to put it on speaker-phone like a natural cell phone user. She then turned herself into a large orb again to get everyone gathered inside to listen.

"It's like that time with Tamaneko," Mitsukake stared widely at the floating phone. He couldn't figure out what this device was and how else to compare it with a live cat.

"This is beyond any of my abilities," added Chichiri, "To be able to speak across worlds, that's amazing na no da!"

"I've got an idea… but before that, I'm really sorry!" Tetsuya's voice came through the phone. "But you have to hear me out on this!"

"Keisuke," Hotohori spoke up to it, still not sure if he should trust this other person. "What do you think of it?"

"Me? Ah… all I know is that it might be better than then the alternative." (No one was sure what this alternative was, and if they knew it meant they'd get to see Miaka again they probably would have been more likely to favor the alternative.)

"Keisuke has special powers, so we should listen to him on this," advised Chiriko.

"Chiriko," Tetsuya addressed him, "do you still have Seiryuu sealed in your scroll?"

That seemed like an irrelevant question. "Yes…"

"Can you let him out? He might be able to do away with Tenkou."

The warriors were quiet for a moment. "So, even though we're the Suzaku warriors, you want us to call on Seiryuu for help?" Taka wrinkled his nose. "Isn't that sacrilege in some way?"

"Yes… No. Help, Tetsuya?"

"No, it should work! You're not fighting against the Seiryuu warriors anymore, and Tenkou being there threatens Kutou as well." (He resisted adding 'I think' to that.) "Besides, Suzaku told Keisuke that a god needs to do this."

"Now, don't go putting words in my mouth, Tetsuya, I don't know if that was exactly it…"

The warriors were silently resistant to the idea, until Taka spoke up. "I think we should try it." He, after all, knew what the alternative was and wasn't eager to put Miaka in any danger.

* * *

Keisuke and Tetsuya kept reading, now trading off reading aloud to each other. "The holy scroll from Taiitsukun was unraveled, and Chiriko summoned forth the blue dragon, Seiryuu."

"Hey, Chiriko stole Yui's job!"

"Shut up, Keisuke! The sky darkened as the dragon took shape around them, and where none of their eyes could follow, Seiryuu Seikun stood before Tenkou."

"…and?"

"It works. Seiryuu gets rid of Tenkou, plain and simple. The worlds are never to collide again."

"But what about Taka? He's part of this world now, he should stay--"

"I'm here."

They jumped, but breathed a sigh of relief as he materialized in the room. They tidied back up, turned off the lights, locked the door and left. There was something in Taka's step. Now instead of being only Taka, he was also Tamahome.

"So, do you feel like a whole person again, or what?"

"Well, there's still supposed to be one more memory jewel," he said. Despite how late it had gotten, they all headed over to Keisuke's place (mostly by Taka's request).

"There you are!" Miaka shouted at them when they got in. "All out drinking all together, I see!"

"It's a good thing we all downed a beer before we left so she can smell it," Keisuke whispered to Tetsuya.

"I was so worried about you," she made a bee-line for her boyfriend. "I kept trying to call, but you wouldn't answer."

"So she called me and I came over to wait with her," Yui added from where she was on the couch with her arms folded. "Nice to see you were part of this party too, Tetsuya."

"Yeah, but I was just watching over these two," he lied, but couldn't keep from smiling to see her again.

"Miaka," Taka took her into his arms and held her for a tight hug the priestess was not expecting. During that long moment, it somehow became clear to the other two that Taka had found the last jewel now that he was with Miaka again.

A love enough to make one whole. Both of the normal young men were touched, as much as they knew they'd be too sappy to admit it. Keisuke promised himself that some day, in whichever world, he would find someone to care about that much. Likewise Tetsuya swore to always hold Yui just as preciously, without needing to be a celestial warrior or anything else, but as a simple man.

To each their own conclusions, and to each their acceptance of their own limits. Always being compared to celestial warriors and priestesses was bound to make any human look insignificant. Though perhaps the extent of their normality had been compromised due to the extraordinary people they had surrounded themselves with.

"Your phone," Miaka finally pushed away. "Why weren't you answering?"

"Ah ha ha. That? Well…"

They could read the devious look on his face, but Keisuke saw the hole in his plot. "You didn't leave a charger with them, did you?"

"…crap!"


End file.
